Lord of shadows
by voider
Summary: Harry and Lucy are the twins who lived. They are also a weird vampire-hybrid, powerful and slightly insane. Watch them as they grow up, as they fool and enrage Snape, Dumbledore, Voldemort and the DE. \ AU Independent Gray Harry \ H/Multy \ Yuri GL
1. Death and Rebirth, Rescue and Belonging

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**Lord of shadows.**

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**Disclaimer**: I don't own what JKR owns. The rest is mine... I think.

**Summary**: Harry and Lucy are the twins who lived. They are also a weird hybrid, powerful and slightly insane. Watch them as they grow up, as they fool and enrage Snape, Dumbledore, Voldemort and the DE... and Fudge and the ministry too.

There will be a few pranks (The legend of the queen, the prince, the princess and the nundu - fourth year), but not too many. There will be dark humor.

This fic is rather Dark. Harry and Lucy escape from their relatives at the tender age of 8. They will meet a 14 years old natural vampire Alicia...

AU, Independent, Gray, Slytherin, Harry. Harry/many. Yuri (girl love).

Harry/Alicia/Lucy/Ginny/Daphne/and a few more girls.

Harry is not exactly human. As such he does not have human morality. The girls are not only a harem... they are more of a trusted inner circle. Those who hate a whipped Harry...fear not. Harry's only equal is Lucy.

Enjoy.

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**Prologue.**

**Before school.**

**Death and Rebirth.**

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Harry Potter, an eight years old green-eyed boy, was walking down the street with a pensive look on his face. His wale of a cousin Dudley and his moronic sidekicks, tried once again to beat the crap out of him.

I wonder if two hours are enough for uncle Vernon to calm down. That pig Dudley got what he was looking for. It's about time for that crazy dog to bite someone other than me and Lucy. I'm a little worried that uncle Vernon is going to punish me for hurting his precious son, though. Well, at least this time, I really got that bastard and not my so called "freakiness".

The boy looked at the door, steeled himself and entered the house. "I'm home!" Harry entered the kitchen and froze on the spot.

Dudley was sitting on a chair, smirking at him, with his horse-faced mother Petunia fawning all over him. But that wasn't what made the boy worry. It was the purple face of his uncle and the absence of his twin. Usually she was present for his "punishments". The only time she wasn't, was when she was beaten as well. It hadn't happen since they were seven, though.

They tried to run away after a brutal beating. After a few days however, they were caught and returned home. They still wondered how they were found out. But, more weird was that their relatives appeared to be surprised that they returned. They seamed to not have informed the police that they ran away. He still wondered why and how they were captured.

After that day they never hit Lucy. Of course the other forms of abuse were still practiced, but fortunately beatings were not among them. Harry of course was not excused from them.

Harry hoped that his voice wasn't trembling. "Where's Lucy?" He could not help himself from flinching, when Vernon gave him an ugly smile. "Is she okay?" Harry started towards the cupboard under the stairs. Before he made two steps he felt his arms caught in a vice.

"You'll see her soon enough, freak," sneered Vernon. "I hoped that I beat the freakiness out of her, but it seams that you are both freaks." He started squeezing the hand harder. "I'll beat the freakiness out of you, so help me God!"

Harry hoped that his uncle didn't hurt Lucy as hard as him.

Ten minutes later Vernon dragged the badly abused child after him. He opened the cupboard and threw him inside, locking the door. "Lucy!" Harry managed to moan before he fell unconscious.

Harry woke up disoriented. His head was on Lucy's lap. "How long was I unconscious?" he felt that it was already night. "Hey sis, are you ok? I was so worried when..." Harry lifted his right hand to his face and sniffed. "Blood!" He was in a pool of blood. His sisters blood. Harry crawled to his sister's head. "Lucy," he shook her, "Lucy, wake up!" He touched her face. Her skin was clammy. "Don't be dead. Please don't die." He touched her neck. She had a pulse, a faint one, and she was breathing, barely. "You're alive, you're okay, will be. Lucy!" he shook her again.

"Those bastards. I'll kill them. They'll never hurt you again!" Rage and madness shone from sickly green eyes, illuminating the small dark cell. "Sis, wake up, please wake up!"

"Harry?" she coughed, blood trickling from her lips. "I'm sorry, he was saying... about you...and I got mad... I hit him with a plate... the room shook...strange... and he hit me."

"It's ok, you're going to be ok, just rest." Tears were falling down his face.

"No, I won't... sorry Harry... run away after I'm gone."

"No! you...", he froze as he felt her hand touch his face.

"I love you..." and her hand fell with a thump.

Harry felt her dieing, felt her leaving him. Alone. "No!!" he screamed. "You can't go. You can't leave me alone. You're supposed to live!" Harry cried.

Harry took her in his arms. He didn't even feel the pain of his broken left hand. "Don't die!"

"Don't die!" he kept repeating over and over.

Suddenly the door was flung open. His uncle Vernon was in the doorway. He felt Dudley's eager smirk and aunt Petunia's satisfaction - that he would be beaten again.

Vernon didn't seem to think anything was wrong. "Freak! Shut the hell up! We can't sleep because of your screaming."

Harry froze like a broken record, slowly turning his face towards his uncle. "It's your fault, you should all die. Not her, but you!"

Vernon entered the cupboard and raised his foot to kick the child. "Shut the hell up, you freak!"

Harry looked at Vernon and felt the hate of 8 years of life bubbling inside. "You should die, she should live."

Harry felt something snap, felt power, so much power, power to kill them, power to save her. He let go to his control. He felt Vernon, Petunia and Dudley die in an explosion of blood and gore. He felt the power their deaths gave; felt the circle around the house containing the power, felt his sister as life was leaving her. He took the power and pushed it inside Lucy. He felt her bones mending, her flesh knitting. She was alive, safe. But there was still too much power. He pushed it into himself and felt his body mending, He felt the years of abuse disappear.

But again, there was still too much power, power and blood. "We will be strong, fast, and powerful, no one will hurt us again." Harry shoved the power into himself and his sister, felt her change, felt himself change. The power was gone now.

Both felt sleep overtake them.

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Harry woke up with light in his eyes and in Lucy's arms. This was the first time he remembered waking in light. It was nice.

Green-eyes opened and looked into green-eyes.

Harry hugged Lucy. "You are alive!"

She smiled, "Yes," then frowned, "What happened to ... to them?"

She was such a sweet and kind girl. "They're dead, I killed them." He watched her closely and hoped she wouldn't react too badly.

"Good, they deserve it," she said smiling sadly.

Harry smiled, climbed to his feat and offered a hand to Lucy. They looked around. Everything looked normal, there were no bodies, no blood. It almost seamed as if nothing had happened, as if it was all a dream, but they knew it was real.

The children went into the kitchen. For the first time in their life they could eat as much as they could. They made breakfast in silence, in an odd synchrony.

After they finished eating, Lucy frowned and asked Harry. "When we were preparing the food, why did you give me the ingredients?"

"Didn't you ask me?" Harry replied, blinking in confusion.

"No, I didn't."

"Well, then we are telepaths," Harry said with a grin.

"Telepaths? Harry you are a genius!" she shouted.

"I was just joking, Lucy."

"Well, I'm not. Let's have a test," she said, almost bouncing in the chair with excitement.

"OK, just calm down."

Lucy dragged Harry to the couch; put him in a yoga position, holding each other hands.

"Now what?" Harry asked still confused and bemused.

"Now, we concentrate. Think of me and only of me," she said happily.

"If you say so."

For a long time they stood like a pair of gurus. As they were about to give up, they felt each other.

Lucy entered Harry's mind, then retreated. "Now it's your turn!"

"I don't know how, can you explain?" he asked hopefully.

"I can do better." She entered his mind and showed him.

"Wow!" Harry did as he was shown, immersing in her mind. "Beautiful!" For the first time he felt at peace. He retreated and hugged Lucy. "It's so cool".

Lucy concentrated and send him a mental ping.

"What is it?"

She smiled and told him silently. 'We can talk like this now, mind to mind. Isn't it cool?'

'Yeah, it is,' Harry replied in the same way.

"Harry, we should go, it isn't safe here. This isn't our house anymore."

Harry smiled bitterly. "It never was. But first we should clean the dishes; five people live here, so it would look suspicious if they found only two sets of dishes. And I think we should wait till nightfall."

"Yeah, we'll need money too," Lucy said.

"I know where." Harry returned with a lot of bills. "We don't need to worry about money for a while."

"Good, I think we should wait for the night before leaving. It's a weekend, so no one will disturb us." Lucy walked to a window and looked outside at the wards. "It's beautiful!"

Harry looked over her shoulders. "What? I don't see anything."

Lucy entered his mind and showed him how to see it.

"You are right, it's nice, but what is it?"

"I don't know," Lucy replied. "But I think it's dieing."

"Dieing? How do you know? It doesn't look like dieing to me. It looks like it is just pulsing."

Lucy looked thoughtful. "I don't know how, I just do. It feels like it will disappear in time."

Harry nodded. "No need to worry about it now. Let's rest for now; we'll have a hard night."

**-x-x-x-**

Harry shook Lucy from her sleep. "Lucy, it's night, time to go."

Hand in hand, they left the house and begun creeping in the night.

They heard a snarl, and from some bushes the crazy, old, cat woman stepped out.

With a confused look on her face she asked "Why aren't you in the house? You should be home!"

"We're on an errand from Uncle Vernon," replied Harry.

"But you should be in your home." The crazy woman was looking at something in her hand with a look of consternation.

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked, frowning at the old lady.

The old lady shook herself. "Just that it's late; you should go home, dears."

'She's telling lies, and she is worried about something. I think I can read her mind if I concentrate. What do you think?' Lucy asked mentally.

'Go for it, but I'll come with you.'

The children launched a mental attack and plunged in the woman's mind.

Nothing prepared them for what they found in the mind of the old lady: their parents-the Potters, muggles, the magical world, Voldemort, the war, that they were famous for killing the dark lord, the wards, Diagon Alley, Gringotts.

What infuriated them was Dumbledore, who knew they were abused, and kept it secret. He was the one who brought them back to the Dursleys when they ran away, and then apparently put a mental block to not run away again. He also kept the police and neighbors from getting involved. He made the social service people and the school teachers ignore them and think they were well treated. Dumbledore was paying the old bitch with Potter money to keep an eye on them and make sure no one found out they were abused. They were rich and were not supposed to live with their relatives.

Dumbledore also put a locating charm on them so he and the old woman would be able to keep track on them. However the charm was not working witch meant one of the three: the charm was gone, they were in the warded house, or they were dead.

'Dumbledore won't know about us until the ward is down,' Harry said silently. 'The old lady is supposed to contact him only when something goes wrong. I don't want him to know that we are gone.'

'So what do we do?' Lucy replied. 'Get rid of her?'

'Yes, she's an evil old bitch; they knew about the abuse, if Dumbledore is so powerful he could have made sure we were well treated. It would be easier to make sure we are happy, than to keep erasing the memory of those who learn about our abuse. This means he wants us to be abused. We suffered because of him. I'll kill them and won't feel any guilt over it. The question is how?'

Lucy frowned, and then smiled. 'I think I know how.' She concentrated on the old woman, then took Harry's hand and tugged away.

The old lady was standing with a blank expression on her face.

"What about her?" Harry asked.

Lucy smiled nastily. 'She'll get what she deserves. I told her to kill herself and to make sure her body isn't found.'

'And you think she'll do it just because you asked?' Harry inquired.

'No, not just because I asked, I used my power; she'll never say anything to anyone. Don't worry.'

Harry nodded and smiled. 'If you say so, then I believe you. Useful power you have.'

"So where should we go?" Lucy asked.

"London, we should visit that goblin bank. See if we can do anything about Dumbledore control of our lives and money. In any case we have weeks till he finds out that we are missing. In the meantime, we should find out more about our powers and magic." said Harry.

Lucy nodded, and then grinned. "Let's go to London!"

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 1.**

**Before school.**

**Rescue and Belonging.**

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After three weeks of experimenting the two children learned more about their magic. Lucy found out that she is good at reading minds, learning any skills other people had in only a few minutes and teaching them to Harry. She also learned how to make people in single or in crowds not to notice them or to think that they were older. Harry, on the other hand found that he had the power to manipulate things with his mind and a high regenerative power. He was also much stronger and faster than Lucy, which was no small thing since Lucy was stronger than a bear and faster than a panther. Coupled with the martial arts and various stiles of fighting they learned after raiding the minds of a few dozens of people at a martial arts competition they went, they had no fears of a normal person.

This is why they got in the habit of taking long walks in the night. The kids got in a few scuffles, no one got hurt... on their side of course. As they approached the middle of the park they were exploring that night, a scream of fear and hate shook them from their complacent walk. In the distance, a hooded figure was bend over the figure of a girl. As they shouted and rushed to the scene, the figure rose to its feet in an odd, graceful way.

The figure looked at them for a second, and then waved its hand. "Leave!" it said with a deep voice that attracted and repulsed at the same time.

Harry could not help himself. He copied the exact hand movement of the dark figure and replied in the exact tone of voice. "We are not the droids you are looking for!" he quipped grinning like a maniac.

The pale-skinned figure seamed surprised. 'The children are still there grinning madly. And they are certainly not the droids I'm looking for.' The surprisingly young looking man stopped his next aberrant thought. He took a few steps towards the children and gave a small dignified sniff. "I smell human, no... wizard, and vampire, and veela? And something else. You both smell the same. But how can a male smell like a veela?" The man gave a small shrug. "Were I a few centuries younger I would take you as my pets. Especially you, little girl, you would have grown into a beautiful woman. Alas, I am older and wiser now, and I know not to keep strange and dangerous creatures. You should not have interrupted my kill." The man walked to Harry. "Now be kind and die."

Harry was scared, for his life and Lucy's. This guy was dangerous. When the figure approached striking distance, he launched himself at the bigger man. Moving faster than he ever managed, Harry drove his fist in the figure's gut, his foot into his knee while bringing his other hand in an uppercut to his falling head.

The figure fell backwards a few steps, and then righted himself. He snapped his knee back into position, then tested it. "There! All better now," he told the surprised boy.

"You heal fast," Harry replied.

The man did nothing for a few seconds, and then launched himself at Harry faster than anything the two children ever saw.

Harry felt his head bend to the side, and then fangs pierced his neck.

Lucy did not know what to do. If the man, the vampire could beat Harry like this, then I won't be able to do anything, physically. She smiled grimly and looked at the creatures head. The vampire opened his eyes and looked at Lucy and in the moment their eyes connected, she struck with her mind. She hurried to the region of the mind that held memories, skills, and knowledge of the way to fight as a vampire. She then began integrating them into her own mind and in the mind of her twin as well.

The surprised vampire felt the other mind rummage through his own. He stopped feeding and concentrated on stopping the mental attack.

When Lucy felt she had enough, she closed the connection, and then let the vampire instincts rise to the surface of her mind. She felt her other half do the same.

Harry forced the dazed man to his knees and drove his fangs deep into his neck. He felt his other half, his mate, sinking her own fangs on the other side of the vampire's neck. They left the empty husk of the ancient master vampire that was one of the most feared assassins of Europe, and glided towards the girl whose scream started all of this.

She was kneeling and supporting herself with her back on a tree, with a hand touching the ground and the other on the neck clutching the bite mark that the assassin gave her. She watched as the two child-master vampires glided towards her. She could not help herself but tremble in fear. Here there were two untrained kids that snuffed the life of one whose name sent shivers of terror amongst the vampire clans. And they did it the way two dragons feed of an elephant. Alicia wondered what would happen to her, what will they do to her? She did not fool herself with false hope even if they helped her. Because master vampires used labels for anyone: my master, my servant, my slave, my pet, my mate, enemy, allied (for a short while - as short as possible), food, dangerous food, dead. As she felt the girl gently move the hand that she had pressed on the bite mark and then slowly lick the blood and the puncture bite, she knew what she was: food. But as soon as she begun to wonder if she was lucky or unlucky to be food, the girl-child gave a final lick and retreated. She could not help but moan in disappointment as the pleasant feeling left her. Alicia stopped gazing at the girl's blood-red lips when she felt the other master vampire move.

Harry offered his left arm to the vampire.

Alicia was frozen in surprise. Was he offering...?

"Drink!" ordered Harry.

"Yes master!" Alicia managed to say before she sank her fangs in the offered arm.

Harry was continuing the integration of the new information with Lucy, while petting Alicia's hair. It would take a few days, at least until the completion of the integration. They felt the vampire instincts taking precedence over all things as they buried deeply into their psyche.

As soon as Alicia felt that she drunk enough, she retreated with a final lick and relaxed in the healing power of the powerful blood she received. After a few minutes of healing she opened her eyes and gazed in the emerald orbs of her two rescuers. Then, her gaze slid on their forehead and she gasped. "You're the twins-who-lived!" From the look on their faces, they did not know that whatever glamour they had, disappeared in the fight, nor did they seem to like that she knew who they are.

Lucy looked at the kneeling face of the girl they saved. "I'm sorry. I promise that it won't hurt at all."

Alicia felt her heart froze in fear. I am so stupid. Why didn't I keep my mouth shut? "Please, you don't have to kill me. I won't tell anyone."

Lucy blinked in surprise. "I wasn't going to kill you. I was going to erase us from your memory."

"Ah! I'm sorry. But ... but why?"

Harry looked at the girl in front of him. She looked so lost. He couldn't help himself but feel older than her, as if she was a frightened 8 years old child. Harry smiled gently and shook his head. "I'm sorry. We can't afford an unknown stranger to know about us."

They would leave her alone, and would even take back the memories of her saviors. She would be alone again. Alicia blinked back blood-red tears. What could she do? Alicia smiled, rose to her feat, and gave them a curtsy. "Hello. I am Alicia, 14 years old. I am the daughter of Michael, who was the leader of the Moon Shadow coven. I wish to join your coven." She then kneeled and bowed her head.

The twins looked shocked by the strange request or plea. After they rummaged in their minds, they found out what to do, if they were inclined to accept the strange request.

"What about your coven?"

Alicia shook her head sadly. "My father's second betrayed him. I was cast out and hunted down for weeks. The man you killed was the assassin sent for me. He was an ancient master vampire, one of the most feared vampires alive. I have no other place to go."

"So if we accept you in ... our coven, we will risk other assassins?"

Alicia felt despair, but answered truthfully. "Yes, there is that risk, but they will be much weaker then this one."

The twins glanced at each other then answered in unison. "We accept."

"Really?"

As answer, the twins begun chanting in a strange harsh language, then cut their palm with an elongated claw and offered the blood to the still surprised vampire.

Harry looked from the purring vampire to Lucy. "You have any idea, what we just chanted?"

Lucy shook her head in a negative. "No. But must have been something like: "Will you join my coven?""

Harry grinned. "Yeah or something like, "Lick my blood!""

They collected the still smiling vampire, restored their glamour and started walking towards their hotel.

**-x-x-x-**

One of the hotel employees looked at the strange black clad trio and shook his head at his co-worker. "Teenagers these days! When I was younger one girl was enough."

The other grinned and shook his head in obvious admiration. "Lucky bloke: rich, has a hot girlfriend who isn't jealous on the second hot girl, and if I don't read too much in the way they are all sticking together, the bloke isn't the only one who'll get something from the Goth-girl.

The threesome entered the lift. Harry asked the girls. "Did you hear that?"

They both nodded and Alicia explained. "Vampire senses."

Harry nodded. "So what did that guy mean?"

Lucy just smiled a secret smile and Alicia giggled, blushed, then looked away, then muttered. "I'll tell you in about four years, maybe three if you are lucky."

After they all cleaned themselves Lucy and Harry climbed into bed. Alicia frowned a bit, and then she laid down beside the bed.

Harry watched her strange behavior. "What are you doing Alicia?"

"Um? ... Sleeping master?"

"Yes I know that. But, why there and not in bed? Do you dislike beds?"

The flustered girl froze. "I don't dislike beds, but that is your bed, I couldn't..."

"Alicia! Come here." Harry moved a little and Alicia crawled between the two.

"Good night, Lucy," murmured Harry.

"Good night, Harry," responded Lucy.

"Good night, Alicia," they said together.

"Good night, master, mistress," the tired vampire managed to say, then promptly fell asleep.

**-x-x-x-**

Edited: May 30, 2009.

**Thank you for reading.**

**Reviews are much appreciated.**

-voider-

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	2. Devotion and Knowledge

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**Chapter 2**

**Before school.**

**Devotion and Knowledge.**

**-x-x-x-**

Alicia woke herself between two smaller forms. This was the first time she felt so safe, so comfortable. I have good masters. They would protect me, care for me, like proper masters should. Father always said that good masters care for their coven. He would like them. But he also said that love without respect is nothing; or lacking both, fear would do as well. Terror is also good, but only for enemies. A little fear is good, but terror makes your own people stupid. They have to be rational enough to think for their own, unless of course you don't want them to think. He also said that the relations between master and servant go both ways. Even if I am weak now, I will grow stronger, I will repay them with love and devotion. Next time I will help in protecting them. I will serve them well.

"Alicia?"

Alicia jerked fully awake at Harry's amused voice. She realized that she was nuzzling her mistress neck and her fangs were half-extended. She jerked from the tempting target and jumped out of bed bowing her head in shame. "I am sorry master."

"It's ok; there is no need to apologize. She seemed to enjoy the attention too."

Lucy came fully awake and smiled at the abject look on the vampire face. "Don't worry. Come here."

The vampire approached the smiling figure and kneeled at the edge of the bed, at the feet of her young mistress. Her head was taken in the other girls lap and Alice sighed in contentment as she felt hands gently going through her hair.

"Alicia, are you hungry?" Lucy smiled at the vampire response, witch originated from her belly. "What kind of food will you need? Food, blood or both?"

"Vampires eat food. But we need blood as well, especially when we exert ourselves or when we heal from injuries. It is recommended to drink daily, but I can skip a few days without feeling great discomfort. After a weak, though weakness and lethargy sets in. After a month vampires begin to go feral if they do not feed. After two months hibernation sets in. Baby vampires are scared with stories, the Lost Ones – vampires that do not feed and spend centuries in deep sleep. But shouldn't you know these things? I mean shouldn't you know these things from the memories of the assassin?"

Lucy begun to explain her ability as Harry went to the phone to get room-service for three. "Well … first I didn't have time to download anything but memories of how to fight, or how to control vampire abilities; second, it is harder to download memories, especially memories that are important and well guarded; and third I do not like to make a full memory dump. It is hard to get rid of unwanted memories. The first person we did was a librarian. We got lucky and found a nice 60 years old guy with photographic memory who read over ten thousand books. He liked movies too. The first time we ever saw an entire movie was in his memory. It was Star Wars. After that we went to see some college professors. However one of them had some ways to give extra credits to some of the female students. We really didn't need to know some things, especially at our age. After that we learned how to delete memories. Then I learned how to only download certain things like martial arts, history, science or how to steal a car."

Alicia nodded. "But isn't it too much information? How can you hold so many things? Isn't it confusing to know so many things?"

Lucy shrugged. "It isn't that hard. I could do full memory downloads for ten thousand years and I'd still have enough space. And only some memories I have were closely examined. They are in a kind of library. If I need something I open it; if not then it doesn't bother me. We have a highly organized mind. I have even learned how to make pseudo-personality. For example I could make a personality to make my homework, while I was doing something else. After it is finished I can integrate what it learned and how it did it."

Harry grinned at the open enthusiasm on Lucy's face. "Yeah, she was pretty proud of that".

"So I should tell you about vampires, seeing as I am one … and you are part-vampires as well. Or should you take it directly out of my mind?"

"No, or not now, we still have yet to complete the integration of the things we picked up yesterday. It is better to wait. You should give us an overview though. But we should eat first." Harry then walked at the door and opened it after Lucy restored their glamour.

The delivery girl blushed after glancing at the vampire that was still being petted. She was stopped from leaving after doing her job by Harry. He made a puncture wound on her wrist and let her blood fill three small glasses. After closing her wound with a lick, he gave her a big tip and escorted the glaze-eyed girl to the door. He closed the door after the confused girl and went to the table.

They all gulped down the warm blood and smiled at the warm feeling it gave them.

After they finished eating Alicia started her explanation about her kind.

"Even if vampires are considered to be evil undead things by most wizards, we are just one of the many different types of magical creatures. Vampires come into existence in two ways. The first is to be born a vampire. It is very rare since only master vampires can breed. And vampires are not very fertile creatures. Natural vampires are very rare. However the bright side is that natural vampires like me, become master vampires when we mature. The other way is to make one is by draining then giving your own blood to the one you intent on converting. Only a tenth survive. It is impossible to know whether one can survive it. A powerful wizard may die and a muggle may survive. No one knows why. New vampires or baby-vampires are then usually educated by their sire for a few years. After that the normal vampires take centuries to become master vampires. Vampires tend to flock to powerful masters. That is how covens form. The coven leader is the absolute master. Small covens usually have only one master, but big covens may have many master vampires, but only one coven leader. Vampires expect and need a strong coven master. It is not a democracy. Those who do not wish to be either master or servant, become solitary vampires, however most vampires crave the contact of their kin. Also vampires have some weaknesses. Vampires loose the ability to do magic, if they ever had any; however vampires have their own type of magic. We are vulnerable to some spells. The sunlight irritates us, especially the younger or less powerful ones. A master vampire can easily function in sunlight, however after a few hours of exposure; pain will set in the locations touched by the sun. Shorts periods of exposure will only sting a bit. Also vampires will feel sluggish in daylight, even in the deep underground. Only in the night are vampires at their strongest."

"Well, we never feel pain in sunlight, so it seams that we got the benefits without the vulnerabilities." Harry seemed deep in thought. "Alicia how do you feel?"

Alicia blinked in confusion at the complete change of topic. "I am feeling well master. Actually, I haven't felt this good in weeks."

"Well have you not observed that it is daylight? Shouldn't you feel tired?"

Alicia twitched in surprise. "Now that you mention it, I feel no weakness. Considering my injuries and exhausted state I should have slept till nightfall."

"Well this is interesting."

The vampire bounced on her feet in excitement. "Since we have a connection now due to my acceptance in to your coven, and you do not have the vampire weakness, it is possible that you shared some of your vampire skills with me. We should test this." Alicia ran to the window, opened it, and then froze in the sunlight."

Harry was slightly alarmed at her state of unresponsiveness. "Alicia!?"

Alicia went to her masters and gave them a big hug. "I didn't feel anything; no pain; nothing."

Lucy smiled at the excited girl. "We're happy that you are happy with the changes."

Harry nodded. "We'll have to see what other changes we discover."

After they discussed more about vampires, the twins' told the vampire about their life.

"What do you know about the goblins? Can we risk going to Gringotts?"

Alicia smiled. "Yes there will be no danger. The goblins work with all magical beings. They never betray the secrets they are sworn to protect. They also never break contracts. So, Dumbledore's ability to use Potter money means that he somehow made himself your guardian or manager." She continued quickly at the expression on their face. "You don't have to worry; he's only able to draw small funds from your accounts. He may be able to draw some small funds, but they will not put a significant dent in to your vault. The goblins will make sure of it."

"Is there a way to get rid of Dumbledore as our guardian?"

Alicia smiled confidently. "Trust me. You will get rid of him one way or another. The goblins will consider him in breach of contract. At the very least you may get another guardian. If we are lucky you may be able to claim your lordship and become emancipated."

"That's good to hear."

Alicia then put a serious expression on her face. "Whatever happens, don't try to use your mental powers on a goblin, especially in Gringotts. Goblins have extremely strong mental shields to protect the information they possess. They are allowed by treaty to kill anyone who makes unprovoked mental attacks."

The twins both nodded seriously.

"There is another reason to go to the goblins. You have some strange abilities. I think we can find out more if we discover who your ancestors were. It seams that one or more of them bred with something other than humans. It's a slim chance, but it's the best we have. The goblins have magic that will show you your family line. It is very expensive, but they should deduce the cost from your family vault."

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later, three cloaked figures entered Gringotts. After they asked to see the Potter family account manager, they were led to a private room.

A goblin entered five minutes later nodding in greeting at the three figures. "Mr. and Ms. Potter I am Killjoy. What can I do for you?"

Harry smiled at the goblin and begun speaking. "Hello Killjoy. We are here for several reasons. The first is to inform you that my guardian is in breach of contract. I believe he is Mr. Dumbledore." At the goblins nod Harry continued. "We wish for Dumbledore to be dismissed from his position as guardian. We also want steps taken against those who have wronged us. We want to explore the possibility of becoming emancipated, or if not possible, finding a guardian of our choice."

Killjoy nodded. "I think it can be arranged, It will take some time though."

Harry smiled gratefully. "We also want a lineage test."

The goblin raised an eyebrow. "I do not see a problem with that either. The cost is 2000 galleons. This sum will be taken from your family account, not your private one, witch has only 50000 galleons. Your family account is over 100 million galleons, so this is not a significant dent to the family vault. If you will be as kind as to go with Backbreaker, I will get the papers while you go to the lineage room."

**-x-x-x-**

The children arrived at the strange room.

A goblin motioned to them to approach a big pyramid. They stopped at the base of the ten foot object, inscribed with thousand upon thousands of small strange writings.

The goblin brought two small bowls and drew a few drops of blood from their hands. For a few moments nothing happened, then some of the writings from the pyramid begun to glow. Another goblin gave them two pieces of parchment, then ushered them outside.

Backbreaker took them back to Killjoy.

Killjoy smiled a goblin smile. "Well?"

Harry silently handed him the two parchments. The first one was black as if someone took a black paint brush to the parchment. Killjoy took the parchment and stuck it to a wall. The strange paper grew and turned itself in an inverted pyramid of names. At the base were the twins names, then their parent's name, then their grandparents, and so on. However the weird things were that between their parents names was another name as it they had two fathers and not one.

The goblin read the name aloud. " Tom Riddle, Lord Slytherin. Interesting, very interesting!"

He then read the other parchment. "Mr. Potter, you are Lord Potter. You are Lord Black thanks to your deceased godfather Sirius Black. You are also Lord Gryffindor as the Potters are the only family related to Gryffindor and there are no Gryffindors still alive. You are also Lord of Slytherin thanks to your ritual adoption into Slytherin by Tom Riddle. Your sister is your heir to all these titles." The goblin then looked at Lucy. "Ms. Potter You are Lady Ravenclaw as your mother was the last of that noble line. Since inheritance in the Ravenclaw house pass primarily thru the female line, you are the Lady and your brother is your heir to this particular title."

Lucy asked slowly. "Aren't those last three titles the names of the founders?"

The goblin grinned a ferociously. "Yes my Lady. You are quite lucky. These titles will give you a big political, social and economical power. Also if you accept them, you will automatically become adults under the law since these particular titles do not care about your age. You will have several privileges: you will be able to use magic outside of school; if you choose to go to Hogwarts, you can use your title as Lords to claim separate quarters; as heir to one of the founders you can even use the founders private quarters; and to top it off you are the owners of Hogwarts." He then leaned back into his chair and starred in Harry's green eyes. "If you choose to reveal your founder title to the public at large, you can even sack Dumbledore from the position of headmaster."

Harry thought for a few moments then shook his head. "No, I'd rather have him, fat, dumb, and happy. We will claim all the titles, but we will hide the founders' titles."

Killjoy grinned in approval, then shouted something to Backbreaker. "Lord Potter… may I suggest something?"

Harry nodded.

"If you wish to hide the founders' titles, your sister will have no title to protect her. You could cede you title of Lord Black to your sister. This way she will enjoy the same rights and privileges as you."

Harry smiled at the idea. "Thank you, Killjoy. I have a question. Won't people wonder how I claimed the lordships while being underage?"

"No Lord Potter, sometimes Lords decide that their heirs may ascend to the Lordship even if they are underage. Dumbledore or anyone else will not know if such a stipulation was made by the Potter or Black family heads."

Backbreaker returned with five rings. Killjoy gave one of the rings to Lucy and the rest to Harry. They put them on their fingers and felt them draw their blood and then shrinking to fit their fingers. Harry then pulled the black ring and handed it to Lucy. She put it on and smiled as it drew blood again.

"Congratulations Lord Potter, Lady Black. You may order the rings to become invisible if you wish."

Harry and Lucy commanded the three founders' rings to not show themselves.

"You have five votes in the Wizengamot. When you wish to inform it of your lordship, you just need to tell the rings. The rings are also portkeys to the family properties. You just need to tap it with your wand or concentrate on the ring then say the location."

Killjoy then gave them a thick folder of papers. "These are all your properties, money, investments, shares and everything else."

Harry opened the property lists and whistled in amazement.

"Lord Potter, Lady Black, I would recommend to make your home one of the founders' castle. They are all on hidden isles and have extremely powerful wards.

Harry rose to his feat. "Thank you Killjoy. You have been most helpful. Whatever I'm paying you, double it.

"Thank you Lord Potter."

**-x-x-x-**

The three took the advice of the goblin and visited the founders' castles. They found the three founders portraits and had some nice long chats with them after finding that they would be faithful only to the young lords.

They decided to take the portraits and take them to Rowena's castle. It had the best wards, and the best training facility. They were informed that the strange room that provided anything they wished for was called the Room of Requirements.

They got to know the portraits that took the role of mentors and parental figures. Harry found a kindred spirit in Salazar. Godric seemed very knowledgeable of the vampire ways and took Alicia under his wing. Lucy seemed quite taken to Rowena. She had the same ability as Lucy, though it was even weaker than Harry's. They found out how Rowena got as knowledgeable as she was. It seamed that in the founders' youth they got in a lot of fights with each other and other wizards. After Rowena perfected her ability she routinely raided the people she defeated for any new knowledge they had. The only one that frustrated her was Salazar, who, after finding out about her abilities, found a great interest in parselmagic and parseltongue.

The six decided to concentrating on training the vampire skills was their best option for the moment. The twins had a very big core, but the founders decided that even their hybrid bodies would not react well to the constant use of powerful magic. They would have to wait until they grew a little older. Until then, they would learn the theory of magic and master a broad spectrum of basic spells.

They rummaged thru the armories of the three castles and found some strange armor that would constantly leach part of their power and grow and strengthen along with them. The twins also found wands amongst a collection of a few hundred wands. At Godric's insistence they each got two spare wands and holsters. As they browsed thru the weapons, Harry had the idea of using a sword to parry and deflect incoming spells. Godric explained that skilled wizards could use their wands to do this. Seeing as they were much faster than normal wizards and could use vampire skills, they decided that the twins would use a wand in one hand and a sword in the other. The twins both chose a three foot black katana; Alicia took a liking to a four foot katana and a two foot knife. Then she took about a dozen small knifes and put them on various positions on her body. The twins imitated her as best they could in the placement of the small weapons.

**-x-x-x-**

After a few years of intensive training their eleventh birthday approached and their Hogwarts letter had arrived. The twins had decided to attend school and they responded to the letter informing the school that they will arrive with the Hogwarts express at the start of term.

The next day another letter came. The headmaster wanted to visit them and asked if they would be kind enough to tell him their location. The six all laughed at the poor attempt and informed the headmaster that if he wished they would come to Hogwarts at 2 PM. The headmaster was disappointed but accepted.

Two days later, the twins and Alicia shadow-traveled to Hogsmeade and then walked to the gates of Hogwarts. As they crossed the wards they felled the castle welcoming her true masters.

They were greeted by a scowling professor, who introduced himself as Severus Snape. He then sneered a command to follow him and walked fast without looking back.

When they entered the headmaster's office, they were greeted by the severe face of a woman who introduced herself as professor Mcgonagal, and the disgustingly twinkling eyes and grandfatherly face of Albus Dumbledore.

"Ah! Mr. Potter, Ms. Potter. I am Albus Dumbledore, your new headmaster… and if I may ask who your companion might be?"

The creepy voice of the black-clad Alicia came from her shrouded head. "My name is unimportant. I am here merely as an escort."

Mcgonagal frowned in disapproval, Snape's sneer went up a notch and Dumbledore continued to twinkle madly. "We are among friends here, surely sharing your name isn't too much."

Alicia said nothing for a moment, and then in the same voice she replied. "No."

Dumbledore sighed in disappointment. "As you wish. Please sit."

The two children took their seats and Alicia stationed herself at their back like a proper bodyguard.

"Well, to be honest, you had us all worried with your disappearance act. We were quite worried that we could not find you all these years. You, my children, made a few people very worried." Dumbledore seemed disappointed at the lack of response. "Unfortunately we could not find your family. Do you, by any chance, know where they are?"

"No."

"I was afraid of that. Since we can't locate your family, we will have to find you a new place to stay. We made a small list of good families that would be overjoyed to welcome you as their children. You'll have to meet them and decide the family you like best."

"No."

"I beg your pardon?"

Harry took a deep breath. "I said no. I do not need a new family, nor do I need another home. I am satisfied with what I have."

"I am afraid I must insist Harry."

"I am afraid I must disagree."

"I am afraid you can not. You are a minor and I am your headmaster. The law is on my side."

"I am afraid it isn't." Harry raised his hand and showed it to Dumbledore. "Do you know what this is?"

"A ring?"

"Yes, but what kind of ring?"

"The Potter family ring." Dumbledore didn't seem happy with the admission.

"Yes, and do you know what it signifies?" At Dumbledore's lack of comment, Harry continued. "It means I am emancipated. As such, I and my sister can do as we wish."

Dumbledore sighed in resignation. "Very well. But I must insist that I am to be allowed to inspect the place you are living and the persons that live with you."

"No." At his short response Harry felt Dumbledore's legilimency probe touch his mental shields.

Alicia did not have a connection as strong as the twin-link, but after years of close proximity and blood-sharing, she could feel her masters' emotions, the state of their bodies, magic and health and their mental shields. This is why, at the first brush off her masters' shields, she went into action. Alicia suddenly appeared between the headmaster and the twins, with her katana and knife held in a threatening position. "Desist!!"

Only the twins did not shudder at her voice.

Snape and Mcgonagal went for their wands.

Alicia ignored them. "If you ever use legilimency on them again, I may have to kill you."

Dumbledore raised a hand as if pleading. "I am sorry. I'm afraid we started badly. I believe we should continue this discussion after the term starts. Minerva, maybe you could show the children their future common-room and dorms."

"Of course I will, Albus."

"It will not be necessary. We will not be staying in the Gryffindor dorms."

Minerva raised an eyebrow. "Come now mister Potter, your parents and all the Potters have been in Gryffindor. I'm sure you will follow in their steps as well."

"I did not mean that I will not be in your house. I meant that I will be staying in my private quarters."

Snape sneered at him. "You're even more arrogant than your father, Potter."

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid I can not give you special treatment."

"I did not ask for that. As Lord Potter I am entitled to private quarters."

"Very well. But your sister will have to stay in the dorms. I can not bend rules for you."

"It is traditionally allowed for relatives to sleep in the private quarters. But fortunately this is not the case here."

Lucy raised her hand and showed them her ring. "The Black ring."

Harry smiled. "You see headmaster, as lords we are entitled to private quarters. Good day."

**-x-x-x-**


	3. Departing and Beginning

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 3.**

**First Year.**

**Departing and Beginning.**

**-x-x-x-**

Harry woke himself in Alicia's fierce embrace. The twins would be going to school today and Alicia would go back amongst the vampires. Harry and Lucy were not too fond of the idea. Alicia didn't like it either, but she wanted to take revenge for the betrayal of her father. She would slaughter her enemies and take control of her old coven. Her masters might need a few good warriors. Alicia looked in the eyes of her beloved master and smiled sadly. "There is no need to worry. I will be fine. After the rituals you performed on me, the gifts and skills your blood provided and the training we received I doubt there is a vampire that can defeat me."

Harry sighed and tightened the embrace. "I know, but that does not mean that you can fight multiple opponents."

Alicia nuzzled his neck and sighed in pleasure. "You are right, but I will not fight recklessly, you know that. There are vampires that were not pleased with the change in leadership. I will try to recruit them. When I fight I'll do my best to have the upper ground."

Lucy chuckled and ran her hands through Alicia's hair. "He knows that, He just can't help himself but worry about you."

Alicia moaned harder. "Please, master".

"Anything for you, beloved."

At Harry's words of acceptance, Alicia sank her fangs in his neck. This will be the last time to taste the precious liquid. Who knows how much time will pass before I see them again.

"Easy there love." Alicia stopped at Lucy's murmured words. "If you drink more I'll have to carry him to the train. Come here."

The vampire licked the wound with a final disappointed lick and turned to face her mistress. At the inviting look on the other girl's face she sank her fangs once again. When she finished, she relaxed in the deep embrace of her masters.

**-x-x-x-**

Ginny was not a happy girl. Her git of a brother Ron was going to Hogwarts. She would stay home, alone. She didn't even have Ron to torment, not that she liked to torture him, but he was such a git. He needed daily reminders to keep him manageable. Honestly, with brothers like Bill, Charlie and the twins, were did gits like Percy and especially Ron come from? Her mental ramblings suddenly stopped as she spotted a strange trio approaching.

There were two children, a boy and a girl, and a third taller hooded person with some kind of disillusionment, since all she could see under the hood was darkness.

They all had the same type of boots made of some kind of black dragon hide. Upwards she could see some kind of black pants. They all wore a dark cloak, with a metal clasp of a dark green color at the neck, which hid everything from neck to the knees, including their hands.

She could not help herself but stare at the white-skinned, green-eyed children. The boy had a ponytail of long black hair. And…

And she was knocked off her feat right in the arms of the girl. She was the most beautiful girl she ever saw. She had a strange hairstyle. The hair at the back of her head was in a beautiful ponytail. The hair on the sides of her head, near the ears, were braided in two simple looking but beautiful tails that reached over the front of her shoulders and touched her breasts. She could not help herself but compare her to a beautiful Chinese princess.

Before she could even give her thanks, she was righted to her feet by the surprisingly strong girl and heard the mocking voice of the boy.

Harry had already met Draco Malfoy when he was buying school supplies. He seemed to have inherited his entire Death Eater father and none of his Black mother. "Draco, you are as rude as ever."

Draco said nothing and let his father handle the upstart Potter boy. Lucius Malfoy looked at the boy coldly. "And who might you be, boy?" he sneered.

"Is it not polite to introduce yourself before asking someone's name?"

"I am Lord Lucius Malfoy!" he declared grandly.

"I am Lord Potter."

This seemed to put a stop to his planned tirade. The Potters were far older than the Malfoys. And Lucius could not go talking about mudbloods dirtying purebloods to the 'boy who lived' in public, so he just swallowed his words.

Harry smiled knowingly and looked at Narcissa Malfoy's cold, but polite look and bowed his head slightly. He was sure he saw amusement and satisfaction in her eyes at her husband's predicament.

Lucius found his words of escape. "Lord Potter, I am afraid we are in a hurry. Good day."

Ginny giggled in the arms of the girl. "That was fun!"

When Ginny stayed in the girl's embrace, Lucy drew her even closer and buried her face in the girl's neck, inhaling the sweet smell of her hair and sweeter smell of the blood that ran behind her skin. "Indeed, very … fun."

Harry could not help but grin at the desire that ran through his twin.

"Yeah mate, this is the first time I saw that git swallow his words." This came from one of the three approaching boys.

Ginny relaxed in the strange sense of well being that the girl's embrace produced. "Hi, I'm Ginny Weasley. I'm ten. The git over there is Ron, he's eleven. Those two troublemakers are Fred and George."

"Harry Potter and this is my sister Lucy."

Ron gaped like a fish. "Oh my Gods, you're the twins who lived." He looked at their foreheads where the two simultaneous killing curses were rumored to have hit them. "Can I see the scars?"

Ginny muttered something about stupid gits.

Ron scowled at Harry's negative answer. "Come on, Why not?"

Alicia answered in her chilly voice. She seemed to have taken quite a liking to it. "If you desire a scar so much… then I would be most happy to oblige."

"Huh?" answered Ron intelligently.

Fred and George answered simultaneously. "It means shut your gob, you bloody git." They looked at the mysterious figure. "So, you are?"

The voice responded coldly. "Not interested in talking."

Ginny groaned. "Honestly, you are as stupid as Ron sometimes. Her face is disillusioned. She doesn't want anyone to know her identity."

"Oh yeah, sorry!" They then looked at the embracing girls.

"Damn," said one.

"If they were older … ", said the other.

"And not our sister …"

"Yeah!"

"Say… Lucy, do you think you could let go to our sister?"

"No."

Harry grinned inwardly at Lucy's response. She was a little possessive.

Ginny nodded and glared at her twins dangerously. "Yeah, buzz off."

"Umm, but we have to go Gin, the train is going to leave… and mom and dad are coming…" they trailed off weekly.

Ginny whispered in the other girl's ears. "Can I write?"

Lucy smiled at the girl. "Yes. Do not worry. We'll see you next year my dear pet."

The Weasley went to their parents.

Harry hugged Alicia. "Take care of you, beloved."

"Yes, master."

Lucy hugged the vampire as well. "I love you. Be careful."

"I will, mistress. Make sure to … train master. I will want to test his … skills thoroughly. Perhaps you will perform that ritual of growth as well"

"Perhaps. It will age our bodies a little, so we'll be able to use more magic. Of course there will be other … advantages."

They both giggled and hugged again.

**-x-x-x-**

Harry and Lucy shared the compartment with the Weasley twins, Ron, and Hermione Granger. The twin pranksters were ok and fun, Ron was a git and Granger was in love with Dumbledore and authority.

When Malfoy came with two goons and tried to put on a pureblood show, Harry signaled the twins to do nothing. Harry managed to enrage Malfoy. When he and his goons tried to attack, Harry broke a few of their bones and threw them out of the compartment.

Fred and George were impressed, Ron was still a git and Hermione started lecturing on non-violence, saying that it solves nothing. When Lucy pointed that violence did solve things, like getting Malfoy out of her compartment, Granger huffed and ignored them.

**-x-x-x-**

At the destination, the three gits were surprisingly healed and smug about something.

When they arrived at the sorting ceremony, the deputy headmistress put a hat on a chair.

The twins had discussed about witch house to be sorted in, and they decided that being in Slytherin would cause the most chaos.

"Potter, Harry." When Harry heard his name he sat on the chair and put the hat on his head. The hat didn't seem to need much convincing to sort him in Slytherin. It seemed almost giddy at the though of chaos its choice would provoke.

"Slytherin!"

Snape looked as if he ate something bad, Mcgonagal paled and Dumbledore lost the twinkle from his eyes. The Hufflepuffs seemed surprised, the Ravenclaws were curious, the Slytherins seemed shocked and the Gryffindors looked betrayed as if Harry killed their puppy. Fred and George were snickering about something.

Mcgonagal seemed to have regained her voice. "Potter, Lucy."

Lucy put the hat on her head. "Slytherin!"

Harry introduced himself to the people around them. The only children that responded were Zabini, Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis. Malfoy looked with hatred at the twins.

When the feast was finished, Snape took the two children to the headmasters office.

Mcgonagal was already there with a slight expression of betrayal on her face.

Dumbledore motioned them to sit. "Children, I am very disappointed in you."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Snape bristled at his tone. "Yes Potter, your unprovoked vicious attack will have consequences, you brat."

"Please Severus, Harry, what you did was very bad. You will receive a month of detention with professor Snape."

"No."

"What no, Potter?" snarled Snape.

"I will not accept any unjust detention."

"You'll get whatever we say you get Potter!"

Dumbledore interrupted Snape. "What do you mean, Harry?"

"They attacked me first, I only retaliated. If there is someone to be punished it is them, not me."

Dumbledore sighed. "Be that as it may, you provoked them first, my boy, and then you gave them quite a few bad injuries."

"I provoked them? They called my mother a filthy mudblood. They are clearly at fault here."

Snape sneered at Harry. "Well, they said something else; I'd trust their word over that of a brat like you."

"Headmaster, do you have a pensive?"

"Yes, but why, Harry?"

"I can show you my memory to the three of you."

Dumbledore sighed. "There is no need. I believe you Harry. There will be no punishment. But you should strive to control yourself in the future."

"And what about Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle?"

"What about them?"

"What will their punishment be?"

"There is no need for punishment Harry, what is done is done."

"I disagree. They insulted my mother. They attacked me."

"I think they learned their lesson."

"Well, I disagree."

"Well, you can disagree all you want, Potter. The headmaster's word is final," sneered Snape.

"Is that so, headmaster? Is that your final word?"

Dumbledore looked at Harry with disappointed eyes. "Yes, my boy."

"Your decision means that you encourage their bullying behavior. But if they cross the line with me, I will punish them, headmaster."

"Are you threatening them, Potter?"

"No Snape…"

"Professor Snape, Harry."

"Whatever. I am just telling you how it's going to be."

"Very well Harry, but you should not let anger to cloud your mind; it will only turn you to the Dark."

"Whatever."

"Minerva will take you to your private quarters, I'm afraid that they are rather close to the Gryffindor dorms."

"There is no need, headmaster. We have already selected our quarters."

"My boy, I believe that you should let us…"

"I don't believe anything headmaster. We selected. We are lords. We will sleep wherever we please. Good night headmaster, Professor Mcgonagal, Snape."

"Professor Snape, Harry."

"Only if I am Mr. Potter or Lord Potter and not 'my boy', 'Harry', 'child' or 'you brat' ", said Harry over his shoulder.

**-x-x-x-**

The twins used Salazar's private quarters. There were a few big bedrooms, baths, a living area, a laboratory, a training area, a library and even a pool.

They went to classes with the Slytherins and Gryffindors. They all avoided them like the plague, especially Ron. The gryffindorks looked at them as if they were death eaters. The Slytherins didn't want to have anything to do with them, because Snape was on the warpath.

The first class they had was DADA. The professor appeared to be just a frightened deranged man, but they got a strange, disturbing feeling from him. It was the same feeling they got from Snape.

The other professors were pretty good.

Today they would have potions with Snape.

He came in with the cloak billowing behind him. It was a good performance … for a human. They could do much better if they tried. After a little heartening speech, he started to take attendance. When he reached Potter, he snarled a few questions, that a first year had no way of knowing. Harry answered all with a careless "I have no idea." Snape seemed Infuriated at Harry's careless attitude.

He was also trying to catch him with his eyes. After a short mental discussion with Lucy, they decided that he may be trying to use wandless legilimency on him. They decided to let him have a go at them.

As Harry finally looked deeply in Snape's eyes, the professor snarled mentally in victory, and sent his mental probe. He was surprised to find a pathetic mental shield. He had waited for this moment for quite some time. Gathering his mind in a battering ram he slammed in the pathetic shields, only to find that it was only a week outer shield. When he tried to break through the second shield, Harry struck back.

Harry was pleased at the opportunity. They would really learn potions from a potions master. As Harry sent his mind like a tank through a rose garden, destroying any mental defenses, Lucy started downloading His potions skill and knowledge and his spells.

In the physical world, the students only saw Snape and Harry stare into each others eyes, then as Snape begun to fall to the ground, the twins seemed to disappear from their seats. Harry appeared in the front of the kneeling professor, with a hand in his robes and the other holding a knife to his neck. Lucy appeared behind Snape with a hand in his hair, jerking his face towards Harry, the other hand with a knife to his back

Malfoy jumped to his feet and run out the door.

No one else moved as minutes past as the twins and Snape froze looking at each other.

As the twins rummaged for any pieces of important information, Dumbledore arrived with an aura of power. Harry immediately broke contact and threw him towards Dumbledore in an impressive display of physical strength. "Here, take your pet death eater away."

Dumbledore seemed to understand what happened. "Class dismissed." He then told the twins to follow him as he carried the groaning professor to the infirmary.

Madam Pomfrey gave Snape a few potions as the twins explained their censured version of the truth.

Snape approached the twins with a look of deep hatred. His hand went to his wand.

"Snape, if you draw your wand I will kill you."

"Severus, please calm down."

Snape's hand drew away from the wand, but he didn't seem calmer. "Headmaster, I demand that these two be expelled immediately."

Harry and Lucy snorted in unison. Snape didn't even know what was going to hit him.

"No Severus, you are the one who started all of this. There will be no punishment."

Harry smirked at Snape. Dumbledore was beginning to learn. But he was still behind. "Actually there will be a punishment."

Snape gaped at him and Dumbledore twinkled madly. "I am glad that you accept the responsibility you have in this incident, Mr. Potter."

"I wasn't talking about myself, headmaster. I am completely innocent. However Snape is going to spend some quality time entertaining the dementors."

Dumbledore's twinkle died an infant death and his face was filled with disapproval. "What do you mean, Harry?"

"I mean that your pet here tried to mind rape a student and a Lord. I want you to call the aurors."

"Let's not be hasty, Harry. You must think carefully about this."

"What's there to think? He's a death eater. He belongs in Azkaban. He's the reason my parents died. He has raped, killed, tortured and he enjoyed it."

"Harry, Snape is a different man now. He has turned from the Dark. He has worked as a spy for the Light side. He has more than proved himself. He is a good man."

"Really?" said Harry in a sarcastic voice. "What of his biased treatment toward students? What of his disgusting teaching stile? What of his protection of bullies from Slytherin?"

"Harry, it is not his fault. This is what he must do in the fight against the Dark. He will not be trusted by the death eaters if he behaves differently."

"And that gives him the right to abuse children?"

"It is for the grater good, Harry. I must ask you to not continue in your revenge plan. It is for the grater good, Harry."

"Very well, I will accept … on a few conditions."

"And what are those conditions?"

"He must apologies … publicly … in the great hall … tonight."

Snape gaped. "I will never ..."

"Severus, please. Harry, it cannot be known that he serves the Light. I think a private apology is the better choice."

"I disagree, Headmaster. Let him tell the other death eaters the truth. He tried to rape my mind and this is his punishment. It will actually improve his standing amongst them."

"Very well I accept your condition. Severus, you must do this, or I cannot be certain of my ability to keep you out of Azkaban."

"Also, I want him to not be able to give me detentions, or take points from me, my sister, or any friend I have. The only way for him to give us a punishment must be with the approval of all the heads of house and after they hear my side of the story."

"Harry you would be undermining his status as a professor…"

"I do not care. He is obviously biased against me. Take it or leave it."

"Very well, but I must ask you not to abuse this privilege. Is that all?"

"No, but I want to ask you in private." After Snape left he continued. "I want you to tell me the prophecy."

"This I can not do Harry, It is far too sensitive a matter."

"I am a master at occlumency. I can keep a secret."

Dumbledore sighed and told them the prophecy.

"Very good headmaster, I will await with trepidation for Snape's apology."

As the twins were heading to the great hall and discussing the prophecy and whether it was even true, Fred and George accosted them.

"We heard you tried to kill Snape. We see you are not suspended or expelled. How many years of detention did you get?"

"None."

"How did you manage that?"

"I'll tell you later. For now watch Snape."

They headed for their own tables.

As the hall filled, everyone was sending glances at the twins.

Dumbledore raised himself to his feet and cast a sonorous. "I am sure you all heard all sort of rumors about today's incident. Professor Snape has something to say."

The hall watched Snape with anticipation, waiting for his verdict."

Snape seemed frozen for a second, and then in a cold mask he opened his mouth. "I… I apologize to Mr. Potter for my actions of today. I deeply apologize and promise that I will try to not let old grudges control me."

Everyone gaped at Snape. Was that really Snape or was this some sort of elaborate prank?

Harry mentally grinned at the speech witch must have been written by the headmaster.

Harry rose to his feat and cast a sonorous of his own. "I accept your humble apologies, professor. Rest assured that all your past transgressions against me are now forgiven."

At his own response, everyone looked at him in amazement. Well… almost everyone. Daphne Greengrass was coughing pumpkin juice and having her back patted by Lucy.

Lucy handed Daphne a napkin. "There you go my dear." Daphne gave her a grateful smile. "You know, Daphne dear, you should smile more. You're very cute when you smile."

While the students were being led through a cheer by Fred and George, Daphne put her frozen mask back on and glanced around surreptitiously.

Lucy patted Daphne's shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry my little ice queen. No one saw your mask slip up."

**-x-x-x-**

Ten days later at breakfast, a huge flock of owls arrived. Every student and professor received a book.

Harry was quite proud. After talking to Fred And George they figured out that mind-rapes were more common than they thought. And Snape wasn't the only perpetrator. Dumbledore too was using legilimency. Their answer was that they had to give everybody the tools to defend themselves. They bought a few hundred books on occlumency. It was an American book and it was the best book for beginners.

Dumbledore read the book title in horror. "Occlumency for beginners. How to become an average occlumence in less than one year. How to protect yourself from mind-rapes. How to make schoolwork three times easier."

Dumbledore cast a sonorous and addressed the children. "These books belong to the restricted section. I would ask you to bring them to the teachers table immediately."

Before anyone could do anything Harry jumped to his feet and addressed the hall. "You do not have to surrender anything. These books are perfectly safe. They can teach you how to protect yourself."

"Mr. Potter, this is foolish. Possessing a dangerous forbidden item is cause for suspention or expulsion."

"You are correct headmaster. But these books are neither forbidden nor dangerous."

"Are you willing to bet the children's education on this, Mr. Potter?"

"No. If this causes anyone to be expelled, I am more than willing to pay their tuition to Durmstrang, Beauxbatons or Salem."

Dumbledore looked at the calculating looks on some of the students and sighed in frustration. Going to a good school of magic was very expensive. Some of the children might be quite happy to accept a different school free of any cost. "Very well. You may keep the books. But I want all of you to be very careful."

Harry smiled inwardly at another small victory. He would chip and chip away at the colossal power of his enemies. And in their moment of weakness, he would strike.

**-x-x-x-**

**A.N.** First, thank you all for reviewing.

On the topic of the cough-incest-cough… the cause for the taboo is that the genetic results of such … unions have greater health risks. However since I said that the twins are some sort of hybrids, maybe they are genetically perfect… and even if they aren't, there is always protection. And socially, as you know, they do not really give a … cough … they do not care. Also vampires aren't very fertile.

'deadpoollj' , it is nice to see that my subtlety is not wasted.

On the topic of pairings… or let us say any further pairings, I will strive to make use of them in the story and not just use and add them for no particular reason.

I already have a mostly complete idea of what I'm going to write till the fifth year, but any suggestions are welcomed.

**-x-x-x-**

-voider-

Edited October 9 2008; fixed a few grammar mistake;


	4. Deceiving and Gift

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 4.**

**First Year.**

**Deceiving and Gift.**

**-x-x-x-**

After the apology and book incident, students seamed to relax around them. Almost all of the Ravenclaws loved them for the book, saying things like next year we can read three times more books. The Hufflepuffs didn't like the idea of Snape rummaging through their heads and were happy that someone put a stop to it. The Slytherins seamed torn between feelings of hidden admiration, hate and outright loathing. Most of the Gryffindors seemed to think that the thing with Snape proved that they were secret death eaters, and that they were planning to rule the world as the next Dark Lords. Ron was the biggest supporter of this idea. Fred and George and a few others were cool though.

They already knew most of the material they were studying and were the best in class, even at potions much to Snape's dismay. For that reason many of the students would have liked to study with them, however they were a little intimidating and unapproachable, and from the look on some people's faces, they seemed to be a high-risk target, so they were mostly ignored. The exceptions were Fred and George, Granger, Ron, Zabini, Daphne and Tracy.

Fred and George and the twins were cordial pranking rivals.

Granger seemed to be envious on their title as the best and smartest first year. This didn't annoy Harry, What annoyed them was that every so often Granger's mouth would open and Dumbledore's words would come out.

Ron was still a git.

Zabini was fishing for information for his father.

Daphne and Tracy were another matter altogether. Those two were inseparable, so when Daphne started studying with them, Tracy had no choice but to accompany her. Their families seemed to know about it, actually it seamed that they discussed in depth whether to have any sort of social relations with the twins.

Day by day Daphne's mask of indifference would relax while Tracy's jealousy on the attention Daphne gave them increased. One day it came to a head. One day when they came to their secluded corner of the library, Tracy seemed to want to stab Lucy repeatedly with a sharp, or even better, a blunt object. Unsurprisingly, most of her marking-the-ground behavior was concentrated on Lucy. After one of Tracy's snarls, Lucy rose gracefully passing behind Tracy's chair, then made herself comfortable in Tracy's lap.

After giving a kiss on the forehead of the frozen girl, she buried her face on Tracy's shoulder, started speaking in a contrite voice, while running her fingers through the frozen girl's hair. "I'm sorry my dear, I've been ignoring you, haven't I? Let me make it up to you my dear." She then proceeded in giving her a ten minutes long apology of caresses, small kisses and murmured words of endearment. With a small kiss on the nose, she left the stunned girl, gave Daphne a small peck on the cheek, and then dragged away her amused twin.

After that, Tracy's scowls were replaced with slight blushes.

On this particular fine day, Lucy was bored with the bottled blood they had. She was looking rather hungrily at the girls.

Harry snapped his twin from her reverie. "That's enough. You're driving me crazy. Tonight we're going out."

Daphne raised an eyebrow. "Where are you two going?"

"The Forbidden Forest."

"What? There is a reason the Forbidden Forest is forbidden."

"Yes, we know."

"Don't give me that. The centaurs aren't very fond of humans. There are all sorts of Dark creatures there, vampires, werewolves, undead monsters …"

"Acromantula," piped Tracy.

"Acromantula, nasty buggers, fast and strong."

"And what do you mean by that?" asked Daphne dangerously.

Harry spoke nonchalantly. "We didn't tell you about it?"

"No", replied Daphne in a frozen voice that complemented her icy expression.

"Well… there we were in the forest, after having a bit of fun, running around and all that. And we didn't feel like coming back to sleep. So, we found a nice spot, put a few wards to keep out the beasties and went to sleep. The next thing I know Lucy wakes me up. The wards were failing and out of nowhere, five acromantula attack. The first was six-feet tall. The next two were about four and a half feet and the remaining two were about three feet."

"So, what happened?"

"I won ", said Harry proudly.

Lucy glared dangerously. "No you didn't. It was a tie."

"I won."

"Tie."

"So how did you escape?" asked Tracy.

"Escape? Why would we do that?"

"Umm, the acromantulas? You know, the giant man-eating spiders!?"

"Oh, we didn't, we killed them."

"What happened!?"

"Well, I got the big one, one of the average and one of the small acromantula. Lucy got the other two. I won."

"You did not. You lost the small one. "

"No I didn't. Even if I did, I still got the big one. I got both quality and quantity. I won."

"Beauty before brutality. I won."

"You guys are joking, aren't you?" asked a panicked Daphne.

Lucy hugged the distraught Daphne.

"You aren't going to the forest again, are you?"

"Don't worry my dear. We are very fast and very strong. There is nothing that can harm us in the forest. If there is something that is too strong we will retreat, I promise."

**-x-x-x-**

Hours later, the twins jumped off a tower. They transformed in the middle of their fall it two big black ravens. They send out a mental call and their two familiars came to greet and follow them. They got the smaller ravens on their ninth birthday. It was a present from Alicia. The familiars would alert them of any dangers while they were on the ground.

After an hour or so of flying, one of the familiars signaled a dangerous unknown presence on the ground. While the ravens circled in the sky, the twins landed on a tree and transformed. They felt the same feeling that the presence of Snape or Quirrell produced, only this time the feeling was much grater.

On the ground, an injured unicorn was being held down by a wraith-like figure. It seemed to be drinking the blood of the unicorn. It was disconcerting, since unicorn blood may heal the body like nothing else, but it invariably produced madness.

The twins didn't wand to approach the abomination, so they both drew their wands and launched a few nasty spells. The figure reacted with surprising agility. It was nothing on their level; but it was pretty fast for a deranged, insane abomination. It got hit by the first volley of fire, the second only clipped it and the third was way off course. It looked at them for a few seconds, as if debating with itself wetter to attack or not. It decided that discretion was called for and fled.

The twins approached the glorious yet pitiful creature, kneeled and started to heal it. They felt the centaur that had come to the scene just as they fired the first volley of spells, approach. "There is nothing you can do, young ones. The injury is too deep."

The twins ignored the horse and continued. The only thing they had studied extensively was healing spells. They also raided Madam Pomfrey's mind. When they finished with the healing, they fell to their knees, feeling their bodies drained. They should really do a ritual of growth.

The unicorn rose shakily to its feet and nuzzled the children.

The other horse approached and inspected the unicorn. "Impressive. It will fully heal in a few days. The foal seems to be fine as well. I must thank you for protecting and saving one of our forest friends. These days even they are in danger. It is sad. A few hundred years ago the forest was much different. It seems we cannot keep the unicorns safe in these dangerous times."

"Do you know what that thing was?"

"No, we know it appeared this year and without your timely arrival she would have been its first unicorn fatality."

"There are two professors-Quirrell and Snape that feel the way that thing did, the feeling is weaker, but it's the same. Snape is a death eater."

"Indeed? We shall ponder on this matter."

"If it is so dangerous for the unicorns, why don't they leave?"

"Alas, they have nowhere else to go, like all magical creatures."

"You know … if the unicorns want a second home, I think we can provide it. We have a hidden Island. We would not mind if the unicorns shared it. It is quite large, there is plenty of food and it is quite safe."

"Perhaps … it is a most kind offer. We will discuss it. I do not think that most of the unicorns would leave, but I believe that the pregnant females and the young would like a peaceful place, at least for a while. I believe you visit the forest regularly. We shall talk of this again."

**-x-x-x-**

At the Halloween feast, Quirrell burst in the great hall and screamed there was a troll in the dungeons. The headmaster immediately ordered all students to their common rooms. He seemed to ignore the fact that the Slytherin common room was in the dungeons and the troll was there as well.

Tracy jumped to her feet and …

And Harry grabbed her. "I think you'll be safer with us."

"Daphne is there … we must hurry." The twins followed Tracy.

"What is she doing there?"

"Oh, you know, practicing."

"Practicing?"

"Yes."

"What is she practicing?"

"Umm."

"Tracy…"

"You don't want to know."

"Yes we do."

"She's practicing Dark magic."

"I see."

"Please, guys, Dark magic isn't the way you think, you aren't evil if you…"

"Shut up, Tracy!"

"I know it isn't evil. But it's a dangerous branch of magic."

"You aren't mad?"

"No, but you'll both practice the Dark arts only if we're there from now on. Honestly are you really that stupid? You can accidentally kill yourself or worse with that stuff."

When they finally found Daphne she was in a bad situation. She was cornered by the troll and was flinging curses, most of them Dark, while backing away. But the curses were basic ones and she was not strong enough. The troll barely felt their sting.

Harry blinked out of existence and appeared behind Daphne. He grabbed her robes and threw her at Lucy, who caught her, kissed her gently on the cheek, handed her to Tracy and blinked behind the troll. Both Harry and Lucy drew a katana and its wakizashi companion. Harry cut at the stomach with the katana, while cutting the tendons on the arm with the huge bat with the shorter wakizashi. Lucy did the same thing with the legs. When the troll fell to his knees, the bat rolling away uselessly, and both katanas flashed rapidly. They took the stunned girls, flashed to the opening of another corridor and went towards their quarters.

They were just in time for Mcgonagal, Snape and the headmaster to see only a kneeling troll. They approached the disgusting thing and Snape gave it a shove with his foot. He was rewarded with a sickening thud, as the head fell and rolled to the ground and stopped at Minerva's feet. She turned a little green and excused herself for a few moments.

The four Slytherins reached the private quarters and the twins put the shocked girls on a couch. Harry brought the girls two glasses of firewhisky. They downed them quickly. Daphne recovered first. "You really weren't joking about the acromantulas, were you? I half-thought that you were joking or exaggerating. Lucy … you have some blood on your face."

Lucy wiped her face with a hand, then brought it to her face and licked a finger; she grimaced at the foul taste, and then cast cleaning spells on herself, and then the others. "I need a bath. Do you want one as well?" At the girls nod she continued. "Do you want to have one alone, or do you want to come with us? Don't worry; we have swimsuits and the pool to go with them."

They let the healing water of the pool invigorate their bodies and their minds.

**-x-x-x-**

After the troll incident some of the professors looked at the twins a little oddly, especially Snape and Quirrell. Quirrell seemed awfully jittery around them.

Their correspondence with Ginny still continued. Fred and George informed the twins that Ginny convinced her brothers and parents to invite them to the Burrow for the Christmas Holidays. Since Alicia would not be home at Ravenclaw Castle, they accepted. Ron didn't really like the idea.

The twins' friendship with Daphne and Tracy intensified. They showed them the Room of Requirements and begun training regularly. They trained and learned together in daylight, and at night the twins explored Hogwarts or the forest.

On one such night, they stumbled in a room with a covered object. When Harry uncovered it Lucy felt a ward being broken and a signal being sent off. They looked at the strange mirror in awe.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"If you think that it's the Mirror of Erised, then yes, it is."

"Why does it lack protection? Why was there an alarm on it? Anyone could just come in. This should be in a secure place, out of the hands of even the most stable minds."

"Well given the alarm, it seams that someone wanted to know when someone is looking at it."

"Should we leave or should we wait for him?"

"Wait."

They did not have to wait too much. Dumbledore strode in the room and looked surprised at the children.

"Ah children, you should not be here. I brought the mirror here, but I did not think that anyone would find the mirror before I took it away. Do you know what this is?" At the twins negative response Dumbledore explained. "This is the Mirror of Erised. It shows you your deepest desire. You must understand that what it shows you is imaginary. The mirror is very dangerous. It is like a drug. People have wasted their lives away in front of it. I will take it away. You must not look for it, do you understand?"

"Yes."

"It is not real."

"Very good. I am glad you understand. I know it is a private thing, but do you think that you could tell me what you see?"

"I see me and Lucy."

"And two people. I think they are our parents."

"We are older."

"And we have friends around us."

"We are all happy."

Dumbledore smiled. "I see. You both see the same thing. It is a good wish. It shows that you have a pure heart. Others could see riches or other selfish things. Do not lose your innocence."

The twins nodded and smiled slightly.

Dumbledore appeared deep in thought. "You do not ask why the mirror is here."

"Not really. I figure you have your own reasons."

"Yes, But since I told you the prophecy and I trust your discretion and your ability to keep it secret, I think it is safe to tell you. Do you know what the Sorcerer Stone is? It is a stone that can give immortality or riches. It was given to me for safe-keeping. It was in Gringotts for a while, but someone tried to steal it. The safest place for it is here."

"So that's what that three-headed dog is guarding."

"Yes. I see you met Fluffy. He is part of the defenses for the stone. And so is the mirror. Now, it is quite late. You should go to sleep and I will take the mirror away."

The twins left and headed to their room, carefully not thinking about what they saw in the mirror.

They discarded their body armor that they always wore on and climbed into bed.

"So, what did you really see in the mirror?"

"I saw you and me, we were older. I was in your arms." Lucy smiled at the memory.

"And at our feet was Alicia."

"And Ginny," she grinned.

"And Daphne and Tracy, is that all?"

"No, there were bodies."

"Yes," he agreed, "I saw Snape."

"Dumbledore,"

"Voldemort,"

"Death eaters."

"They were dead. We killed them."

Lucy could not help herself, she started cackling. "Yes, we both have the same pure heart!"

"Innocence!" Harry could not help himself but follow his twin's example.

They fell asleep in each others arms muttering an occasional 'pure heart' or 'innocence', starting a new fit of giggles.

**-x-x-x-**

A few days before the winter holidays, Dumbledore gave them a gift. It was an invisibility cloak. "This belonged to your father. He gave it to me for safekeeping. I think it's time for me to return it."

"Thank you, professor."

"I understand that you will stay at the Burrow for the holidays. The Weasley family is a good one. I am sure you'll have a wonderful time."

"Thank you, professor."

**-x-x-x-**

The twins shared the compartment with Daphne and Tracy. They talked all the way to London. When the train stopped, the twins gave the two girls long hugs.

"Come on it's only two weeks. We'll send you Christmas gifts." Lucy gave Daphne a last squeeze and ended the hug.

"Really?" asked Tracy.

"What is it?" asked Daphne.

"It's a secret."

"Let's just say it's something green." Harry opened the door and floated the girls' baggage out.

They took the girls to their families, introduced themselves, had a bit of polite pureblood conversation, and then said their polite pureblood goodbyes to the girls before heading to the Weasleys.

Ginny squealed at their appearance and launched herself in Lucy's arms. Ron didn't like the attention everyone gave to the twins, but no one paid any attention to him.

After the introductions were made, Ms. Weasley asked about their baggage. Lucy drew a small wooden box. "It's shrunk," she said by way of explanation.

When they arrived at the Burrow, Ms. Weasley shooed Fred, George and Percy to their rooms. She then looked at the four remaining children. "Harry and Lucy will share Ginny's room. Ginny, you will stay with Ron."

Ginny looked disappointed and Ron grumbled.

Harry intervened. "Ms. Weasley, Ginny can stay in her own room. I'll sleep with Lucy."

Ron gaped at him as if the thought of sleeping in the same bed with a girl was the worst thing possible. Ginny seemed to like the idea.

"Really dears, there's no need to trouble yourself." Ron and Ginny can share a room for two weeks. Don't worry."

"There's no trouble. Anyway we always sleep together."

"I see. But the beds here are too small for two people."

"It's all right, we'll transfigure them bigger."

"But the rooms are a bit small for big beds."

"We'll enlarge it."

"That's a good idea. Unfortunately I'm not that good at transfiguration and enlargement spells."

Ginny narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Her mother was quite good at those spells.

Harry smiled sweetly. "That's ok. We're quite good at them."

The matron seemed a little flustered. "I … It wouldn't be proper though."

"What do you mean?" asked Lucy in a innocent tone, perhaps too innocent.

Ms. Weasley wondered whether or not to tell the innocent looking children why boys and girls sleeping together might be considered improper. "Nothing, my dears." She continued thinking.

"Excellent!" Lucy clapped her hands and motioned for Ginny to lead the way. Harry followed them.

They left behind a stunned Molly Weasley.

After Harry closed the door, Ginny collapsed on the bed giggling. "That was priceless."

Lucy conjured a golden circle and levitated it above her head. "What do you mean, my dear?"

Ginny giggled again.

After they calmed down, they enlarged the room and transfigured a big bed and a smaller one. They did a few more transfigurations.

"Wow!" Ginny admired the twins' handiwork. "Why didn't mom ever do this?"

"Transfiguration at this level is very hard."

After dinner, Molly inspected the room and made sure there were two beds. She seemed impressed with their handiwork.

The twins changed and climbed in bed. Ginny sighed and headed to her own bed.

"Hey Ginny, you want to sleep with us?"

Ginny was tempted to accept Lucy's suggestion. "I can't. Mom will go bonkers if she finds me in your bed."

"That's no problem." Harry drew his wand and made a few motions with the wand. "I put a type of confundus ward on the room. If anyone checks, they'll think that you are in your own bed."

Ginny grinned and jumped in their bed. "Thanks."

**-x-x-x-**

"Wake up sleepy head." At Ginny's mumble, Lucy continued. "It's time to open the presents."

"Don't want to, nice here," mumbled the girl. She then buried herself more in the embrace of her bedmates.

"Oh? You don't want our present?"

Ginny snapped out of her half-asleep state. "You got me a present?" At the twins nod, Ginny looked away guiltily. "But I didn't get you anything."

Lucy grinned with mischief. "Really? That's too bad. I guess I'll have you give us a present right now."

"But I don't have anything!" Ginny seemed really upset.

Lucy took the depressed girl in her arms, raised her chin, and gave her a long kiss. "Thank you for the present. It was wonderful." She felt her fangs elongate and desperately repressed the desire to sink her fangs in the flushed girl's exposed neck.

Harry took the stunned girl and gave her an equally long kiss. "Yes, definitely wonderful." He gave her another kiss. "We'll have to do this again. Now my dear you should go downstairs. We'll be there in a few minutes."

As soon as Ginny left the room, Lucy launched herself at Harry. She pinned him under her, found her preferred spot on the neck and sighed in pleasure at the blessed release.

Harry wasn't feeling particularly calm after Ginny either. As soon as she bit him, he returned the favor.

A relaxed pair of twins came downstairs and begun the presents opening ceremony.

They got some horrible sweater from Molly. Fred and George gave him some candies. They were disappointed when the twins handled them warily as if they were dangerous, which they were. Ginny already gave them a present and Ron gave them a nasty look.

The twins gave Ginny an emerald necklace. They had sent their raven familiars with a similar present to Daphne and Tracy.

Molly was shocked at the expensive object. Ginny put the beautiful jewel around her neck and beamed happily. Molly started to object at the jewels price and told Ginny to return it since it was so expensive.

Ginny looked dejected. "Ginny are you going to sell it?" at the girl's outraged expression, Harry smiled and turned to the matron. "Well, you see? She isn't going to sell it. This means that the monetary value is unimportant. I don't see why she should refuse. "

Ginny smiled and thanked the twins.

"What about us, Harry? Don't we get a nice gift like that too?"

Harry smiled innocently and gave Fred and George their presents. "I knew you'd ask so I got you this." Inside they found two very small ruby necklaces. "I'm afraid that this isn't very expensive. But I thought you'd like one as well."

The pranksters put them on … and nothing happened. They looked disappointed. They grabbed the twins and took them to a corner. "I'm disappointed, guys. That was the perfect moment for a prank. You still got a long way to go."

"Yes, we thought so as well, but we figured that your parents wouldn't like for Snape and Malfoy to suddenly appear in their house."

Fred and George eyes bugged out. They dragged the twins to their room. "So how do we activate it?" asked Fred or George eagerly.

"You just have to say 'I love you' and the name of the person you want to transform."

They looked a little ill at the thought. "I love you, Snape!" said one with a look of disgust on his face. "I love you, Malfoy!" said the other. In their place stood a sneering Snape and a simpering Malfoy. "We love you, guys!" said the teary eyed pranksters. "So how do we get back to our original form."

"Actually, we haven't figured that part yet." At the murderous stare he received, Harry continued quickly. "Relax, I was joking. You just have to reject your love declaration. However the same rejection doesn't work twice. You'll have to use it only a few times, find a lot of ways to reject people or learn how to break the security spell."

"I see. We're proud of you. You went so far, so quickly."

"So do you two mind to tell us what are you planning?"

"Whatever do you mean, Harry?"

"You know what I mean."

"Yes we do, but we don't want to ruin the surprise."

**-x-x-x-**

Ron was not pleased at Ginny's gift. He wouldn't talk to her and kept giving her nasty looks.

Ginny didn't really care. She'd never had so much fun. Ginny couldn't wait for next year so she could go to Hogwarts with Harry and Lucy.

The day to leave with the Hogwarts Express came.

The twins gave Ginny a final kiss and went downstairs.

When they arrived at the station they gave Ginny a final hug and a peck on the cheek. Lucy gave her a little lick on the neck as well.

They climbed in the train and found an empty compartment. Daphne and Tracy came in with a grin on their faces and were hugged in greeting.

Harry, not wanting some git to disturbing them, sealed the door.

"So, did you like the gift?"

"Yes. We loved them, " they said, touching the jewel under their robes, "did you like ours?"

"Of course!"

**-x-x-x-**

Edited: October 25 2008.

-voider-


	5. Death and Madness

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 5.**

**First Year.**

**Death and Madness.**

**-x-x-x-**

Months passed. Some of the unicorns decided to accept the sanctuary offer. The twins weren't bothered by most people. Their friendship with Daphne and Tracy continued to deepen. Fred and George seemed to not really use the gifts, saying that they wanted to see how they work, but they promised an eventful next year. The Gryffindor trio of Ron, Hermione and Neville continued to talk with them on occasion.

One day, at the beginning of June, after they finished the exams, the Gryffindor trio came at the twins table. Hermione then proceeded in telling them about a giant dog called Fluffy that guarded the Philosopher Stone; that someone knew the truth of how to neutralize it; the suspicion that someone might try to steal it. They tolled them about Snape's suspicious behavior.

"So, you think Snape is the culprit?"

Ron snarled at Harry. "Bloody hell, yes we do."

"So why are you telling us about it?"

"I don't know, Its Hermione's fault. You're just as likely to steal the stone now that you know about it."

"Actually, Dumbledore already told us about it last December."

"Honestly Ron, we already talked about this," scolded Hermione.

Ron grunted and looked away sulking.

Hermione looked at Harry. "Professor Dumbledore isn't in school. The stone is in danger."

"Then tell Mcgonagal."

"We did. But she said it's perfectly safe."

"Then it is."

"No it isn't, Harry. Someone is going to steal the stone. It could bring You-know-who back to life."

"So what do you expect us to do?"

"I don't know. Dumbledore said that if anything happens, I can talk to you. He said that he trusts you implicitly with anything."

"Well. I trust Dumbledore can keep the stone safe. As Mcgonagal said, don't worry about it."

"You don't understand Harry, Dumbledore isn't in school. He can't protect it if he's not here. Someone is going to take advantage of Dumbledore's absence and is going to steal the stone."

Harry shook his head. "Dumbledore said it is safe. I trust his word even if he isn't here. The stone will be safe."

"You can't know that."

"Yes I do."

"Well I can't, and we are going to keep it safe."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry carefully.

"I mean we are going to make sure it is safe. Are you going to come with us?"

"No. It is dangerous. Anyway we're just kids. What good can we do?"

Hermione glared at Harry. "We aren't just kids. If we work together, we can do this. And I know that you aren't just kids. You two can do this."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry flatly.

"I mean that no one gives you or your two Slytherin friends any trouble. Even the upper-years ignore you. Some of them are even afraid of you. You can do this. Listen, we'll wait for you tonight. If you don't come, we'll just go by ourselves."

**-x-x-x-**

The twins were curious to see what Dumbledore was plotting with this scheme. So, they cloaked themselves in shadows and waited. The first to come was Quirrell. He put the three-headed dog to sleep and went in through the trapdoor.

What was Dumbledore thinking? The twins waited for the Gryffindor trio to arrive. They followed them through the plants, hidden in shadows as the trio hunted the keys. A banged up trio entered the chess room. When the door was opened, the twins followed them unseen. They watched the trio playing chess and intervened before one of the stupid children killed himself. Ron and Neville were not in any state to move forward, so Hermione ordered them to go back and talk to Mcgonagal. The twins and Hermione went forward through the troll room and arrived at the potion room. Flames sprouted around them. They read a riddle and found a potion to go forward and one to go back. They gave Hermione the potion to go back.

After she went, they threw away the potion to go forwards. "Who would be stupid enough to drink a potion from a place that was trying to kill you?" Fortunately they knew the spell Snape used for the flames; he thought it to them after all. They did the counter spell to stop the flames for a minute and went through.

**-x-x-x-**

In the room with the mirror and the stone, Voldemort was looking at the mirror through his servant's eyes. He didn't know how to take the stone. He started pacing around the room.

He started thinking. 'Damn, why did I have to go like a bumbling idiot and try killing the Potter twins? That damn prophecy could have been just a creation of Dumbledore's. All that could have been a convoluted scheme of his. And it worked scheme or no scheme. And why did I have to get fancy? I should've just bashed their heads with a conjured shovel. But no, I had to get fancy. I pulled my second wand and send two killing curses simultaneously. I'd never tried that particular combination. As I was watching the beautiful green light, I looked into their eyes. They were so beautiful, green, like the curse that hit both their heads at the same time. I was so taken with the beautiful image that I barely noticed the reflecting killing curses. Maybe if I did only one at a time, I would have been paying more attention. All these horrible years would never had happened. I would be master of Britain. But no, I had to get fancy. 'He could hear the other voices in his head stirring. 'Damn, they were annoying.'

At that moment the reason for his musings appeared in the room.

'And here they are: the twins who lived, saviors of the Wizarding world. Damn, they give me the creeps.'

'Yeah man, they're pocking scary,' came a hated voice in his head.

'Gods below, not him, not again. And what's with the pock?"

'Just be grateful I don't start swearing in Chinese.'

'OK! Relax!'

'Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, the twins. When I first saw them I realized that I made some sort of mental connection when I hit them with the killing curse. I decided to have a little fun. So I attacked them with discrete legilimency. But instead of unprotected minds what do I find? Shields! And not just any shields, they were almost master-level strength. And they are only eleven.'

'Yeah, they were pocking strong and they're pocking creepy.'

'Shut up, I'm trying to think here,' the sane one snarled.

'Is ikle Tommy upset? ' asked another voice in a baby voice.

'Not you too,' groaned the sane one. Everyone thought that Bellatrix Lestrange affectation with baby talk was one of her own. But in fact he gave it to her. Except Dumbledore and himself there were extremely few people that had power comparable to Bella. She had an obedience clause attached to the marriage contract to Lestrange. But it wasn't enough. He wanted a perfectly obedient slave. So he made a deal with Lord Black, in which Bella was given to the Lord of Slytherin as a slave. She wasn't too pleased by her fate. It took him a few weeks till he tortured her into perfect obedience. In one of the … reeducation sessions his mad, baby voice came out. He let it have a long and profitable session with Bella. It was probably what finally broke her mind. After that she took that damn baby voice for her own. Sometimes it irritated him so much that he just wanted to crucio her into insanity. But she was already there and the bitch seemed to like it.

'Does ikle Tommy hate my voice?' giggled the baby voice.

'Shut up!' snarled the sane one. The voices quieted. 'In a few weeks those two brats humbled Snape and cowed the other students into proper deference.' He had spied such an event. 'Some seventh year Slytherin was insulting the sister. The boy just snapped his hands as if they were twigs, and then threw him ten feet into a wall. He didn't even seem winded. He was looking bored.'

Voices then came out and talked about that particular event then quieted.

The sane one continued. 'Then one day I am in the forest feeding. And then I think myself the luckiest man in the world. I spot them in a clearing, sleeping. I could kill them at my pleasure. They were outside the wards of Hogwarts. Just as I prepared myself, five acromantulas decide to do it instead. I am disappointed of course, but acromantulas are quite powerful. In my weakened state they could injure me. So I decide to watch the drama unfold. I find myself a tree to sit and watch, make myself comfortable and accioed a few rodents and squirrels. Just as I got my fangs into a rodent, I see a ward beginning to go down. I thought that the children would run from the bugs, but they didn't. They summoned swords to their hands, grinning as if Christmas came early and launched themselves at the spiders as the wards fell. In just a few seconds, the boy dispatched the biggest creature and the girl the next biggest. Then they turned their attention to the next three. One of the small one jumped at the girl. The other two, a small one and the big one rushed the boy. He threw his short sword at the big spider, tripping it. At the same time he parried the smaller one's slash with the long sword, grabbed a leg with his free hand, and then launched it in the air. The girl was finished with her spider and the boy finished the injured spider and reclaimed his sword. I had just enough time to finish my squirrel, when the damn spider the boy threw, hit the tree I was sitting and made me fall from the tree.'

'Yeah, that move was pocking cool.'

'And when I was enjoying my first unicorn, they attack me. They are very powerful, at least physically. Magically, they look weaker than I was at their age. All the spells they use are low power spells. As for knowledge, they remind me of myself, the way they learn spells. I'm just glad that they don't seem too strong magically. Well, they are very strong for an average wizard; they'll be at Bella's level if they live to see maturity. But, they'll never reach Dumbledore or my own power, even if they use heavy rituals. However, even if they don't have a very big core, their physical strength and speed is something else. They must have done one or two rituals and got training as well. I have to be careful in my current weakened form. Maybe I can use them to take the stone.'

The twins only glanced around the room, then looked at the man in front of the mirror. "Professor Quirrell, how nice is it to see you here."

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Potter, it is nice to see you."

"Well, isn't this interesting, you lost your stutter."

Quirrell took off his turban and turned around. "I'm glad you are here. I would like you to help me on a little problem of acquiring a stone."

Lucy twisted her face in disgust. "That's gross."

"Who are you? You're not Quirrell."

"I am Lord Voldemort."

"Well Voldemort I would say you look pretty good for a dead man, but that would be a lie."

"Why thank you Harry. Now, about the stone…"

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"I am sorry to hear this. But, one way or the other you will do this. Imperio."

The girl's wand appeared in her hand and pointed it at Voldemort threateningly. "Let him go."

"I would not do that. You wouldn't want to kill your own brother, would you?"

Voldemort ordered Harry to look in the mirror. "Very cunning, Dumbledore. Now, Harry, give me the stone." Harry walked towards Voldemort. When he was fifteen feet from him he stopped. He began to resist the curse. "Give me the stone."

"No!" said Harry collapsing to his knees.

"I said, give me the stone," hissed Voldemort walking to the boy.

The boy stopped hugging himself, then rose to his feat fluidly. He threw the stone at his twin. She took aim with careful precision, and sent a jet of dark-red light at the stone, shattering it into nothingness.

Voldemort screamed in frustration. "Do you know what you just did?"

"Um? Condemned you to more years of being stuck to people's heads?"

"I am going to make you suffer."

"You and what army? Look at yourself. You are a pathetic shadow of your former self. You can't even cast a proper Imperio. Your mind rotted away all the years you stayed dead. Since your mind is so weak you'll have to use something else."

"You, impudent child, think me, weak? I am lord Voldemort. I am the strongest wizard alive."

"I already know who you are. And you're not really alive. The brain rot is too much for you. I guess that unicorn blood you got was too much for you. You do know that unicorn blood provokes madness, don't you?"

"I am not insane. The blood of some inferior creature isn't going to control me." Some of the voices rose and argued angrily. 'Pocking hell, isn't it crowded enough in here? We're going to have more?' The voices quieted. "I am going to destroy your mind, Harry." Voldemort approached the motionless Harry. Just outside of his sword range he intoned, "Legilimence," then delved in the boy's mind. He started battering the master-level shields. As he felt them gain even more power, well above master-level, Voldemort used all of his power and concentration to break them. Finally he destroyed them and launched himself in the boys mind, only to find another shield, just as powerful. Exhausted, he broke through the second barrier, only to find himself under counterattack. Feeling that he would be unable to continue, Voldemort begun to retreat, but felt the strange mind follow him and break through the barriers erected by his exhausted mind. He felt it rummaging through his mind. It was as if a million needles were stuck to his brain. He felt powerless as the presence discovered more and more of his memories. At first it was only the most trivial of things. But later, more and more important things. Desperately he tried to close his mind.

When the mental link begun to collapse, Harry grabbed the neck of the possessed man.

Quirrell died, burning at the touch of the boy and Voldemort's shade fled.

Just in the nick of time, The powerful figure of the headmaster appeared. He took the obviously exhausted children to be checked by madam Pomfrey.

**-x-x-x-**

After the twins and the Gryffindor trio were declared fine by the irate healer, Dumbledore asked the children to tell their story.

Hermione started first and explained all that happened. She then turned to the twins. "Thank you for saving us. If you hadn't come after us we could have died."

"Well, you're welcomed. But what you did was stupid."

"What the hell do you mean?" snarled Ron, "we saved the stone."

"No you didn't. You three almost got yourself killed. You went into deadly peril, and it was all for nothing."

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.

"I mean, it was stupid," continued Harry, "Did you really think that three untrained children could have a good chance of surviving the traps?"

"But we did, I was in the potion room."

"Yes Hermione. But it was all luck. You got past Fluffy unscathed, but do you think that if you hadn't know about the music weakness, you could have gotten past him?"

"No, " said Hermione weakly.

"You survived just on luck. The chess table would have killed you. The troll would have killed you, but he was already dead. And if you met Voldemort, he would have killed you."

"If it was so stupid, then you are as stupid," said Ron grumpily.

"No we weren't. We can hold our own in a fight. Even if we are not magically as strong as a mature wizard, we are physically strong. We are fast enough to dodge most spells and we are fast enough to escape if we're outgunned."

"But you did stop Quirrell, didn't you?" said Neville in a weak voice.

"Yeah we did. But if we waited for the headmaster, nothing would have happened. He couldn't get the stone on his own. Thanks to our presence there, he almost got the stone."

"So what happened in the room, Harry?"

"After we got in the room, Quirrell took off his turban. He had Voldemort stuck on the back of his head. He used the Imperius on me. When I looked in the mirror, I saw my image put the stone in my pocket. Voldemort ordered me to give him the stone… I almost gave it. But I somehow snapped out of the influence of the Imperius. I threw the stone at Lucy and she destroyed it. Then… I kind of insulted Voldemort, he got mad and tried to use legilimency on me. He almost got me. Somehow Lucy was caught in the attack. We managed to resist him and I attacked him after exhausting himself. When I attacked him mentally I grabbed his neck with my hands. I think my touch hurt him, so I continued to squeeze… he died. That's all. Headmaster, do you know why he reacted like that to my touch?"

"Thank you Harry. I believe the reason was that, the sacrifice your mother made to save you, somehow still protects you from him."

"I see."

"Well, I am not too pleased that you put yourself at risk like that. Next time anything happens and I am not here, I want you to go to Minerva or Severus. But everything is well. You showed great courage in what you did. Now it is time for me to go. Good night, children."

"Good night, headmaster."

**-x-x-x-**

At the feast, the headmaster gave the five heroes house points. Slytherin and Gryffindor, the houses with the fewest points, became tied for the first place.

The twins promised to visit Tracy and Daphne and to take them to their home for a few days as well. They talked to Fred and George to visit them and buy school supplies for their next year with the Weasleys.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author Notes:** Well, I finished with the first year. Some may say it was a pity that Harry destroyed the stone, muhaha.

About The twins turning anyone into vampires... I can tell you I do not have a plan for it at least until after the end of the forth year. Remember what I said about the mortality rate at conversion. I can tell you that there are certain rituals that give certain advantages. All… or most rituals are considered Dark by the ministry. Does Harry care?

Next chapter is second year.

There will still be an diary incident, and yes it will still be Ginny. However she did start to learn occlumency(the twins gave her the same book they gave the Hogwarts students)… so what will happen? Does Harry know of the chamber of secrets? How will they defeat Tom Riddle? Will the Weasley twins finally use their necklace? Will Dobby almost kill Harry or Lucy? Will he be freed? (I have a most delicious plan for him, but not for the second year.)

While I will still use the major events, there will be major and minor changes. Think of it like the butterfly effect. There is no reason to expect that the basilisk victims will be the same, starting with the cat. I will not have five-to-ten people coincidently looking in a mirror when the basilisk passes by coincidence at the exact coincidental moment. But I'll tell you that the basilisk won't kill anyone.

Some may wonder about the third year. Since Sirius Black died in defense of the Potters(but does anyone know that?), who will the escaped prisoner be? Will we see the dementors?

And in the fourth year, will Crouch put any other name in the goblet? Will Harry accept it meekly? What will the consequences of his actions be?

Also in the forth year we will see two cool pranks that will make certain people foam at the mouth, I have been polishing them for a while.

_Thank you kindly to all my readers and especially to my reviewers._

Stay tuned, next chapter will be out soon.

Edited: October 26 2008.

-voider-


	6. Promise and Change

**-x-x-x**

**Chapter 6.**

**Second Year.**

**Promise and Change.**

**-x-x-x-**

The summer after the second year was the first summer the twins had at the castle without Alicia.

When the twins came face to face with Voldemort, they knew they had both a dangerous situation as well as an opportunity. The Dark Lord appeared to be alive after all. It seamed that Dumbledore told them the truth about this matter. Voldemort was only a shade, but with the stone he could gain a body. They would have to make sure this would not happen, not while they were young and vulnerable. In the end he would gain a body, but by that time they should be strong enough to protect themselves. Since Voldemort was only a shade of his past powerful self, this was the greatest opportunity they ever had. They could gain from his mind the most precious commodity-knowledge. They had to take it now, while he was vulnerable. A better opportunity would never come.

Harry took a risk. He did not resist the Imperio until Voldemort almost accomplished his goal. Then pretending to fight the spell, he carefully hid the stone inside his battle gear. The stone was a precious commodity; they might need it in the future. Then Lucy destroyed the fake stone that Harry conjured. Harry proceeded in insulting Voldemort's mind. They hoped Voldemort would be provoked into using mental attacks instead of spells. He fell in the trap. He exhausted himself battering down Harry's shields. When the Dark Lord accepted defeat and retreated in exhaustion, the twins followed him.

Lucy discovered that Voldemort somehow had a mental connection with them. It seemed that Voldemort had a weakness. They could use the connection to get even more information. They managed to get almost all of his knowledge of spells and rituals. Then they began to search for important memories. They got some, but not nearly enough. Even in his pathetic form, Voldemort still had enough power to stop the attack.

Harry grabbed his neck and forced him to look in his eyes, intensifying the connection, but it seamed that Voldemort was somehow burned at his touch. Voldemort died leaving them with a giant amount of information. It would take all summer to integrate.

**-x-x-x-**

At the beginning of the summer, the twins visited their two Slytherin friends and their families and got permission for them to spend some time at the castle. They got the girls some training, since the wards would hide them from the ministry detectors. Lucy was quite frustrated after each visit, especially when they practiced hand to hand combat with the girls.

In August, The twins made a few visits at the Weasleys. Fred and George got Ginny to convince them to play Quidditch. The twins and Ginny made one team, Fred, George and Ron, the second. Ron seemed to think a team with two girls was easy. To his dismay, and that of the twins, the 'girl team' won every single match. Ginny couldn't stop grinning and was already planning to get a spot on the Quidditch team.

**-x-x-x-**

On August 19 the twins and the Weasleys went to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. When they arrived at the bookstore they found it filled with people.

"What's with all these people?" asked Harry.

"Its Lockhart book signing day, mom's a fan," grumbled Ginny.

"Lockhart? Isn't that ..."

"Moron, buffoon?" asked Lucy.

Harry grinned at his twin characterization.

"What are you saying, children," scolded Molly, "Mr. Lockhart is a famous wizard; just read some of his exploits, he's a true hero," she finished a little dreamily.

"Well, we looked at his so called exploits; they're filled with inconsistencies, lies and outright fabrications."

Just then Lockhart saw them. "Ah, the Potter twins came at my book signing." He rushed to them and tried to grab them for a picture.

Harry joyfully and discreetly broke two of his left hand fingers. Harry was impressed, Lockhart didn't scream. "I believe that it is not polite to grab others without permission."

"Of course, of course," said Lockhart in a carefully controlled voice, "Mr. Potter, I apologize, it is only that I was so excited. After all I am going to be your new professor."

Harry blinked in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"Ladies and gentleman, I am glad to announce that I will be the next professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts."

"I don't understand," said Harry loudly enough for all the reporters to hear him, "Why is a fiction writer like you, going to teach children how to defend themselves?"

The reporters concentrated on Harry like sharks. "What do you mean, Harry? Are you saying that Mr. Lockhart books are only fiction?"

Harry looked shocked. "You mean they aren't fiction? They are considered accurate books on magic?"

"Could you explain, Mr. Potter?" asked a jubilant reporter.

"Well, I only browsed through a book for a few minutes. I found about ten aberrations and more than twenty minor mistakes. Anyway, I'm not the man to ask about this. Compare them to any proper defense textbook or ask any competent wizard."

Harry watched as the reporters started hounding the writer with questions.

Harry exited the bookstore to find the Weasleys in a confrontation with Lucius Malfoy. He walked to Narcissa. "Lady Malfoy, it's nice to see you again."

Narcissa gave the twins a deep curtsy. "Lord Potter, Lady Black."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "You know?"

"Of course my lady, all true Blacks can feel the ring. "

"Your son-Draco doesn't seem to feel the ring."

"Yes, Draco, he is too much his father's son; both physically and mentally. I'm not sure there is any Black blood flowing through his veins."

"Yeah, it's a pity, there are precious few Blacks still alive, and one of them is in Azkaban."

"Yes, Bella, you must not think too harshly of her. When she was young, and sane, she was a totally different person. But after her marriage and after she met the Dark Lord she changed. She became what she is. My Lady… I suspect that her marriage contract had an obedience clause attached."

"I see. We'll look carefully in the matter, though I do not think anything will come out of it."

"Thank you, my Lady. What of my other sister, Andromeda."

Lucy smiled. "Yes, we met her daughter. She likes to be called Tonks. We've already taken them back into the family. We reopened their Gringotts accounts, as well."

"I'm glad. Being thrown away from the family hurt her a lot."

"I am afraid our talk is coming to an end," said Harry intervening in the discussion. Lucius and Arthur were separated from their fight by Hagrid, who took each in an arm and waited for them to calm down.

"Yes, a word of warning Narcissa, your husband… do you care for him?"

"No my Lord, I have never even liked him, but I did as my family said and wed him. I gave him a son."

"That's good. Dark times are approaching. Voldemort is trying to regain a body."

"He is not dead?"

"For now, he is nothing but a shade, but in the end he'll regain his body and his power. When that day comes or even sooner, the death eaters will do his bidding. They'll have to die. Prepare yourself. Sooner or later you'll have to choose. Call upon us if you need help. We protect what is ours. Take care, Narcissa."

Narcissa gave them a deep curtsy. "Thank you, My Lord, My Lady."

The twins nodded to Lucius and joined the Weasleys.

**-x-x-x-**

When the twins arrived at the platform to the Hogwarts express, they found a strange barrier to the entrance. They easily broke through it and joined the Weasleys.

Ginny joined the twins in their carriage. Daphne and Tracy joined them. They seemed to get along well.

The second years took the horseless carriages. Harry and Lucy began petting the invisible horses. Most students smiled at the figure of two children running their hands in the air, but some looked at them with different expressions of disconcert.

The students entered the hall, took their place at their tables and the sorting begun. Luna Lovegood, a blond girl with a weird aura of power, got sorted into Ravenclaw.

Ginny was very nervous. Three years before, she had spied a conversation between Fred and George. It seamed that the sorting hat considered them good material not only for Gryffindor, but for Slytherin as well. The twins chose to go in Gryffindor. It seamed that these kinds of things happened from time to time. Ginny did not lie to herself, she did have a temper, like all the Weasleys; but she was more Slytherin than her prankster brothers. This is why she decided to ask the hat to place her in Slytherin, with Harry and Lucy. She put the hat on.

"Well, well, what do we have here? You are definitely good for Gryffindor. But you are good for Slytherin as well, just like some of your brothers."

"Please, I want to go to Slytherin, with Harry and Lucy."

"Oh, such devotion, it surpasses even the love for your family; and you have known them for such a short time; such devotion belongs in," the hat paused for a second, and then shouted loudly, "Hufflepuff!!"

Ginny was a little disappointed that she was not with Harry and Lucy; but, at the same time she was a little happy too. The hat said she was devoted. Also, Ginny didn't think that her family would have liked a snake in their midst, especially not their baby girl.

Fred and George were reeling in shock; they expected Gryffindor, even Slytherin, but Hufflepuff?

Harry and Lucy joined the applause, and sent Ginny a encouraging smile.

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later, the twins had their first class with Lockhart. He gave them a quiz.

Lockhart saw that the Potters were not writing anything. "Mr. Potter, Ms. Potter, you are not writing."

"Professor, do you really want us to write… our answers?"

Lockhart seam to think about it for a bit, then laughed. "Yes you are quite right. I'm sure you are quite ahead of the class. Maybe you should read from your textbook instead." Because of the twins, he got in a few problems. They seemed to be masters at manipulating opinions, or they were just eccentric. In both cases, Lockhart thought that he should not anger them. Their fame and name could destroy him.

After the disgusting test, in which he put all sort of questions, like his eye color and other nonsense; Lockhart read the answers, and then released a few Cornish pixies.

The twins drew Daphne and Tracy behind them, and then drew a weak shield, so that the four Slytherins would be protected. After that, they watched in amusement as Lockhart fled and the rest of the class tried to catch the pixies. In the end, professor Flitwick had to come.

At the end of the class, the rest of the irritated second years looked in envy at the relaxed foursome.

**-x-x-x-**

Four days later, the twins were on the Quidditch pitch, they decided to try for the Quidditch team.

Malfoy was there as well. "Potter why the hell are you here?"

"Really Draco, is it not obvious? You do see the brooms, do you not? Relax Draco, we won't take your spot as seeker; you may keep it, if you get it, that is."

The twins got their spot as beaters.

Malfoy got his seeker spot. He had hoped that his two bodyguards would get the twins positions.

Flint, the captain thought Malfoy was too slow, so he put his beaters to give him a workout. They obliged. A badly bruised Malfoy climbed off his broom groaning in pain.

The captain grinned at the pain on the boy's face. "Better Malfoy. We'll keep doing this until you don't get hit. See you next practice."

The team left, but the captain motioned for the twins to stay. "You could have got his spot. Why didn't you?"

Harry shrugged. "We prefer beaters, we play together or we don't play at all. Anyway, Malfoy will be good enough once we polish him into shape."

"Listen Potter, I know that some people won't like that you got in the team. Will this be a problem?"

"Not for us. If they try anything, I'll do what I did last year."

**-x-x-x-**

On Halloween, two second-year friends of Ginny from Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones, were petrified. On the wall, next to their frozen bodies, a message was written.

'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware.'

Ginny was devastated. She stopped smiling and had problems sleeping.

The twins now knew, what were the strange sounds that they heard on occasion. It was the basilisk. Salazar told them about it. It was part of the complex defense mechanism of Hogwarts. It seamed a parseltongue knew about it. They went to the chamber and ordered the basilisk, as the Lord of Slytherin, to disobey orders that came from other parseltongues. Unfortunately, the basilisk thought that a human was a human. It did not know who ordered it.

The twins had no choice but to wait. Since they owned Hogwarts, the castle would obey them, even above the headmaster. They told the castle to watch the entrance to the chamber and alert them when someone entered the chamber.

**-x-x-x-**

A weak later, the first match with the Gryffindors took place. Since Fred and George, the Gryffindor beaters, already knew what the Slytherin beaters were capable of, they went all out.

As they continued their graceful private war, they forgot about the other players. Suddenly, in the middle of the game, the two bludgers coming for Harry and Lucy started behaving erratically. The balls began to attack them. The twins had no other choice but to start using a little of their vampire speed. Seeing that the bludgers were keeping pace with them, Harry and Lucy decided that they had enough. They summoned their katanas and with two swift strokes, they cut the balls in two.

Madam Hooch called time and summoned the two teams.

Harry explained that the bludgers were enchanted.

"Mr. Potter, are you accusing the Gryffindor team of cheating?"

"Of course not, this is the third time something weird like this happened. I don't think it has anything with the game. Anyway, enchanting bludgers isn't something a student can do."

"Very well, since I also agree that they were behaving erratically, we will continue the game."

Malfoy finally managed to catch the snitch. Slytherin won the first match.

Later that day, after celebrations, Dobby, a crazy elf appeared and warned them about some danger in the school, but did not say who was responsible. He admitted that he was the one responsible for the weird things that happened. When Lucy tried to use legilimency on the elf, all she got was a bad headache. It seamed that legilimency on a house-elf was a bad idea.

"Listen Dobby, we already know about the danger. All you are doing is only hurting us."

"But Harry and Lucy Potter sirs must…"

"Silence! Do you know what you just did today? You almost killed me and my sister. You will not interfere like that again. If you ever put me or my sister in such danger again, I'll kill you myself. Is that understood?

The elf nodded and started banging his head on the floor.

"That's enough, be gone!"

The elf disappeared, leaving them in peace.

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later, Hogwarts announced that a student was entering the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry hissed something at a picture from the wall of their private quarters and stepped down the stairs that appeared.

When they arrived in the chamber, they were surprised to find a hissing Ginny at the snake. "Ginny?"

"Ah the Potter twins, how nice it is to finally meet you. I am Tom Riddle."

"Voldemort!"

"I see you know about me." Ginny looked at the great basilisk and hissed, "Kill them."

The basilisk did nothing. Harry hissed back. "The great serpent is mine. You have no right to command it."

Ginny drew her wand, but Harry grabbed it and threw it away, then immobilized her. "You cannot do anything to me. If you hurt this body you will only hurt the girl. You have no other choice but to let me go!"

"I do not think so, Thomas." Lucy looked deeply in Ginny's eyes. She struck at the diary's personality, making it retreat.

Ginny woke up and grabbed Lucy's hand with a panicked expression on her face. "I'm so sorry. I hurt Hannah and Susan. I couldn't do anything. He kept making me forget. I tried to fight it, but I couldn't. He's too strong. I'm sorry."

Lucy and Harry hugged the hysterical girl. "It's ok, we know; if you'd have surrendered, he could have fully used you. He would have killed many and you would be dead. You did well. We're proud of you." They took the crying girl to their private quarters. After they finished consoling the girl they began to explain some things to Ginny.

"Ginny love, this diary possessed you. It is an artifact made by Voldemort. "

Ginny looked at the diary with a expression of revulsion on her face. "I know, he told me. But, how do you know about it? Tom didn't tell you about it. I remember everything now."

"You remember what we told you about last year? When we defeated Voldemort, we also learned almost all of his knowledge and some of his memories. One of them was of making this diary."

"I see."

"We can destroy Tom. The question is how. There are two ways. The choice is yours."

Ginny only nodded.

"The first one is to simply destroy the diary. This will be relatively painless. You will receive no more memories of Tom. However, you will receive a significant boost in your magical core."

"And the second?"

"The second is not as nice, but it has its own advantages. There will be some immediate pain, but the core boost will be much bigger. Also, all of the spells and knowledge Tom had will be transferred to you. Some of his memories will be transferred as well, but we will take most of the memories."

"But wouldn't all those awful memories hurt you? He showed me things. They're awful."

"No, we already have worse things from Voldemort. We would find it useful, actually. We didn't get his entire arsenal of spells. We could plug some of the holes in our knowledge. We are masters at occlumency; we can shield ourselves from bad memories. You don't have to worry about us. Also with this occasion, we can reinforce your own mind shields and do a few more things by using our own power and the enormous core of the diary."

Lucy continued after Harry finished. "We don't want anyone to know the full extent of our abilities. In both cases Dumbledore will know something happened. He'll sense that your core has changed. And he won't stop until he finds the reason. He'll use legilimency. He is as much our enemy as Voldemort."

"Dumbledore? I Thought …"

"We were just pretending. We hate him. When our parents died, he put us in a house where we were abused. He knew about it. He could have easily made sure we were happy. Because of him we almost died before we escaped. Because of him our parents died."

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Since he'll know something is up we'll have to feed him a story."

"But won't he use legilimency on me? He's Dumbledore; he'll find out what you told me."

"Not if you chose the second possibility. If you do that we can make sure that he is unable to do it."

Ginny frowned at this. "What if I chose the first, then?"

"Then you won't have a big enough core to maintain the protection of your mind; we will be unable to use the diary as a bridge between our minds; we won't be able to use its death to protect your mind."

"Then how will I keep Dumbledore from finding about this?"

"You won't. We will Obliviate you and we'll tell you the same story we tell Dumbledore."

Ginny looked shocked for a moment, and then nodded. "Fair enough." She thought for a long minute. "I don't want to forget; I want to be strong; I don't want Dumbledore to be able to enter my mind. I want to be with you."

"Good, I'm proud of you. Ginny, how did you get the journal?"

"I don't know. I found it among my books after the shopping trip."

"It means that someone gave it to you, probably with bad intention, or it was an accident. We'll have to review our memories of that day."

"Yeah, um… Harry? If I'll be able to keep the headmaster out of my head, does that mean that I'll have a core as big as his?"

Harry smiled at the question. "No. For now you'll be extremely strong. When you mature, you'll be one of the most powerful witches. It won't be anywhere near Dumbledore's strength, but you'll be the next best thing. You'll probably be one of the 20 most powerful witches or wizards in the country."

"Then how can I keep him out?"

"Well this wasn't in the occlumency book I gave you, but it should be obvious. Mental defenses are similar to a strong castle. It has traps, hidden passages, catapults and canons, archers, a moat, molten oil and other stuff. If the enemy attacks your castle, he has to have a massive superiority. But even if he breaks through, you can put some people in hidden chambers. Similarly, Dumbledore is powerful enough to break through; he'll see only trivial things at first. Your most important memories can be very well hidden and defended. You can have protected modified memories, so he'll think that they are what you are hiding. No matter what happens, never use legilimency on him, even if he uses it on you first and you defeat him. Using it lowers the mental defenses. He is cunning enough to trick you into attacking him, then to break through your exhausted defenses. Also, for legilimency the most important thing is your own mind. If you don't have a well organized mind, a big core won't give you much help."

"I see, but, why are you giving me this strength? Couldn't you take it instead?"

"First, it is instinct. You belong to us. Second we already have a big core. It's bigger than the journal's."

"So, couldn't you increase your own core? Maybe you'll become as strong as Dumbledore."

"We'll probably never be stronger than Dumbledore and Voldemort. Even if we can, it will take at least ten or twenty years. Their cores are probably artificially increased through rituals. Also, we can't use a smaller core to increase a bigger core. The only way to increase a core is through rituals or by using a bigger core. Some rituals use smaller cores to increase a bigger core, but they aren't very effective and they strip the core of a victim, leaving only a squib. Such a process is one of the worst ways to increase a core."

Ginny nodded. "Ok, when do we start?"

"Soon, first I have something to do."

Harry went to a corridor careful to be unseen by both people and portraits. He cut his hand and used his blood to write on the wall. "The Potters will die soon."

The twins did not know what to think about Dumbledore. All they knew was that he was an enemy. The philosopher stone incident proved it again. Seeing that the twins weren't curious about what Fluffy was hiding, Dumbledore told them about the stone, he told them that the mirror was part of the defense. Harry did not think that the Gryffindor trio could learn about it so easy. Dumbledore was a master manipulator, with a prod here, an innocent word there, he could make mountains move. Why did Mcgonagal do nothing about Hermione's warning? If some first-years knew about the stone and how to get past Fluffy, then the stone was in obvious danger. If Voldemort had a companion that did not particularly want the stone, he would have taken the stone and resurrected. Only some noble (or uncaring) people could get the stone. The defenses were far too easy, except the mirror, of course. They were so made, that some lucky first years got half-way through them.

What was Dumbledore? Evil or for-the-greater-good good? Was there even such a thing as evil? What was he plotting? Was he just testing them because of the prophecy? Was there even a prophecy? Did he know of other prophecies? Was there one that said that they will confront Voldemort so many times, and one of them would be in the first year? Was there another that would say something about the diary? This was the primary reason for their scheme. Dumbledore had to think that the twins were his personal pawns. He must think he is completely trusted. Hiding the destruction of the diary from Dumbledore was out of the question if even the smallest chance that he knows or finds out about it exists.

Salazar hat thought them well. The twins must slowly grind their enemy's power. They must slowly gather resources. They must make other underestimate them. They must pretend to be manipulated, when in fact they were the ones that were doing the manipulation. And the strategy worked. They had all but the most important knowledge of Voldemort. They had the skills of one of the greatest potion-master. They had another faithful and powerful follower in Ginny. The twins knew by instinct that Ginny already belonged to them-body and soul.

The most important thing that Salazar thought them was that the art of lying. The best way to lie was to tell almost all of the truth. Do not lie, exaggerate a little; forget telling about other things. At first the twins thought about pretending that they were perfectly normal, to hide all of their abilities. Salazar thought them better. They would hide only their most important abilities. They would downside others.

When Harry returned, they performed the complicated ritual. They gave Ginny all of Tom Riddle's skills, knowledge and spells, while the twins retained the memories, sealing them for later use. They killed the personality of the diary stripping it of any protection, and then transferred the core into Ginny, building powerful mental defenses at the same time. The only thing that was left, was a fragment of Tom Riddle's soul. After that, they all fell asleep exhausted.

When they awoke, Lucy tested Ginny's occlumency, and declared her a master at the art.

They ate the food delivered as usual by one of their own house-elves; then, they slept again.

The second day Lucy sighed. "Soon we'll go to Dumbledore. Then you'll have to go back to the Hufflepuff dorms. I wish you could stay here."

Harry took Lucy in his arms. "There's nothing we can do about it. Dumbledore may let her stay, but the Weasleys won't."

"I know."

Ginny piped in. "So you would like if I stayed here?"

"Of course, love! You belong to us. I think that, with what happened, we reached a new stage in our relation."

"Thanks, I think I have a plan. After I petrified the girls, I began having a lot of trouble sleeping. If I can't sleep when I'm alone, but I can sleep well when I'm with you, I might convince them to let me stay with you.

After a few more hours, they felt Lucius Malfoy, Arthur and Molly Weasley enter Hogwarts. The twins grinned with a bloodthirsty look on their face. Lucy had found out how Ginny got her diary. The black diary appeared after Ginny went for school supplies. So they reviewed all of their memories of that day. They saw Lucius slipping it among Ginny's books.

They waited a few minutes, and then headed to see the Headmaster.

**-x-x-x-**

Lucius smiled at Dumbledore. "You're finished, Dumbledore. You have two pureblood students petrified and another three missing. Two of them are presumed dead, killed by the third. The twins who lived died under your nose."

Dumbledore looked worried, and then he smiled at Lucius.

"Why the hell are you smiling?"

Molly and Arthur both frowned as Dumbledore begun to smile. This was no time to smile.

"I am quite sorry Lucius, but we are expecting guests. Enter!"

Harry, Lucy and Ginny entered. Ginny hugged her parents.

Lucius didn't seem too pleased.

Dumbledore twinkled madly. "Harry, Lucy, I think you have some things to explain."

"Of course Headmaster, this," said Harry showing a small black book, "is the diary of Tom Riddle or Lord Voldemort. Someone gave Ginny this diary and it possessed her. Tom used Ginny to petrify the two Hufflepuff girls. Then, he kidnapped us and tried some sort of ritual."

"What happened," wailed Molly "is Ginny…"

"She is fine Ms. Weasley; we destroyed Tom's hold on her. All that is left is the piece of Voldemort's soul in the diary."

Lucius looked pale. "It is good to see you all well and good. I think you should give me that. I shall dispose of it."

Harry looked from Malfoy to the crazy elf behind him and smiled evilly. "I think not, Lucius." Harry threw the diary on the floor and summoned his katana and impaled the diary. The piece of soul screamed and died in a puff of smoke.

Lucius looked in horror at what happened. "What have you done!?"

"I destroyed it, Lucius. I dare say that your master or his servants will not like that you lost one of his precious baubles."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Don't you? I mean I know that it was you who slipped the diary to Ginny. Because of you, two pureblood students got petrified. Not some nameless muggle-born, but two purebloods. I think our fellow Lords will be displeased that you put all their children in danger."

"You have no proof."

Harry tapped his head. "Occlumency is almost as good as a pensive. We saw you that day."

"It won't hold in court."

"Court?" Harry laughed. "I don't need a court." Harry grabbed Malfoy and threw him in the wall. Harry moved as fast as a serpent and put his right hand around Lucius neck.

The Weasley were petrified, their fury at Harry's words forgotten. Dumbledore fired a stunner at Harry, but Lucy deflected it easily with her sword, taking a defensive position at Harry's back.

"Do not worry headmaster. I will not kill him. Please refrain from interfering. If you do not, Lucy can hold you back for a few seconds. I only need a fraction of a second to stop the reason for your fight."

Dumbledore nodded and relaxed his stance.

"Now Lucius, I am going to hurt you. No one hurts my friends and escapes punishment. I will destroy you, Lucius. I will take everything from you, one thing at a time, until you have nothing left. Then, I will come for you, and I will kill you for the scum you are. First, I'll see you thrown out of the board of education."

"Bastard, I'll see you in Azkaban for this."

"Try, Lucius. I believe Amelia Bones will love to help you, since you had her niece petrified. I would love to testify in front of the Wizengamot. Remember that if you want to accuse me of something, you'll have to testify under Veritaserum. I would love to question you." Harry let go to the man.

"Headmaster, I want him expelled."

"Why, whatever for Lucius? Actually one hundred points to Slytherin for all you did."

"The board will hear of this!"

"I believe, as Lord Potter said, that the board will be quite displeased with you. Even if we can't throw you in Azkaban, the board, at least will not be as understanding."

Before reaching the door Malfoy was halted in his tracks by Harry's voice. "Lucius, I believe you wanted this."

Malfoy caught the black book by instinct and opened it. Inside was a dirty old sock. He threw it away in disgust.

Dobby caught it. "Master gave Dobby freedom. Dobby is free."

Malfoy looked as if he was going to explode. "You are going to pay for this, Potter."

"Harry Potter sir gave Dobby freedom, Dobby thanks Harry Potter." Dobby rushed to Harry with the intention of hugging his legs.

Harry quickly erected a shield and watched amused as the insane elf bounced away. "You're welcome, Dobby. I think you should leave for now. You should come later. I'm sure the Headmaster can find a job for you."

"Yes Harry Potter, sir." The elf popped away.

Free of Malfoy and his insane elf, the people in the room relaxed slightly.

Harry and Lucy sat down on two comfortable chairs. Ginny broke from her mother embrace and climbed in Lucy's lap. Lucy begun to stroke Ginny's back and hair. The Weasleys didn't seem to like that Ginny went to someone else for comfort, but said nothing.

Dumbledore looked at Harry seriously. "There are some things you did not say before."

"Yes. After a chat with Tom, I attacked the diary using legilimency. We were incapacitated and had nothing else to use. I severed the connection to the diary. To protect itself in the battle, the diary used all of his energy, even the one that sustained his protections. As a consequence, there was a small bleed-off and Ginny received a small boost to her power. It is probably more than double the power she had."

"Yes, I can feel that. However there is another problem. There is the danger that the diary implanted part of its personality inside her mind. We will have to have some mind-healers take a look at her."

"No," said Ginny, "I don't want anyone in my head."

"If you don't want a mind healer, then I can do it."

"No. Harry already said I'm ok."

"Ginny dear, I hardly think Harry is the one to make such a verdict, we'll let the professor check you out," said Molly.

"No."

"Ms. Weasley, there is no need. There are some memories of Tom, but nothing can be done about them. They are mostly things that Tom used to torture her dreams. They are not nice, but they are not dangerous."

"I still think we should have professor Dumbledore check her out, no offence Harry, but..."

"Ms. Weasley, I am a master of both occlumency and legilimency. There are no other people that are more qualified."

"I trust Harry with my mind, but no one else. I won't let anyone else in."

"I don't really think you have a choice, dear," said Molly.

"Actually she does, she already knew a bit of occlumency. With the torture Tom gave her, her mind constructed natural defenses. With her increase in power and my own reinforcements of her barriers, I doubt that anyone can easily enter her mind if she is unwilling."

"Not even the professor?"

"Only if he wants to torture her. He would have to smash her defenses. It would feel like a mild crucio. It would also be very hard to rebuild the defenses that protect her still fragile mind. The consequences for her health would be extremely bad. I will not allow any more mental torture against her. "

"I believe Harry is right. Without permission it would be unpleasant and damaging for her mind after the ordeal she faced."

"Ginny…"

"No, Harry said I'm fine, he was the one that saved me, not you and not the professor. I won't let anyone else inside."

"Very well, Ginny, we will do as you wish. Before you go to see Poppy there are other matters to discuss. There are many rumors about what happened. The consensus is that you, Ms. Weasley, are the heir of Slytherin and you killed the Potter twins. We must think on how to present this to the other children."

"I think you should just tell them the truth as it is," said Ginny, "sooner or later they'll find out, anyway."

**-x-x-x-**

The twins entered the great hall and took their usual seats. They had already informed Daphne and Tracy that they were fine, two hours before. Everybody looked at them in shock. Most thought that they were dead, some looked very disappointed.

The headmaster rose to his feed and all the people looked at him expectedly. "There have been some rumors. I will tell you what has transpired. Ms. Ginny Weasley, under the influence of a dark artifact was the one who petrified Ms. Bones and Ms. Abbot. The Potter twins have managed to destroy the dark artifact. She is now under madam Pomfrey's attention and is perfectly fine. Since she is not responsible for her action while under the spell of the artifact, she is innocent of any wrongdoing."

Malfoy, knowing that Harry was friends with Ginny protested. "But Headmaster, because of her, two pureblood girls almost died. Surely some form of a punishment is needed. She shouldn't have played with dark artifacts."

Harry couldn't be happier at Malfoy's words. "Shut up Malfoy, you have no right to talk. After all it was your own father that slipped it between her books. Yes, Draco, your cowardly death eater of a father is responsible for all. He put us all in danger: muggle-born, half-bloods, pure-bloods, children from Light families, from Dark families, even his own son. And it was all because he is too much of a coward to do his own dirty work. This is what he learned at the feat of his master, who is, by the way a half-blood."

Harry enjoyed the look of shock from the faces of the children. He drew his wand and wrote 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' in the air, enlarging and moving them up to the ceiling, then he changed the order of the letters.

"Yes, Voldemort's father was a muggle. He is just using the pureblood agenda for his own gain. And he is not dead. He is only a shade for now, but someday he may come back to life. If you become death eaters or you are forced to become one, and take his mark, then you will become his slave, until the day he dies. If you try to flee and resist his call, he will torture you through his mark until you die or crawl back to him. He will sacrifice you without thinking. If all Britain burns, he will not care. Are these the type of people you want to serve? If you must serve, serve a wordy master."

**-x-x-x-**

Ginny had asked permission from her parents to sleep with Lucy. They didn't give it. Ginny didn't sleep for three days. Madam Pomfrey gave her some sleeping potions and put her to sleep, but they seemed to do more harm than good. She was only able to sleep once the twins came and stayed with her for the night. They stayed the next two nights. The forth night, they went to sleep in their own room. Ginny didn't sleep again. Pomfrey called Ginny's parents and the headmaster. She told them about what happened and asked permission for Ginny to sleep in the twins' quarters.

Molly didn't look pleased with the request. "They are twelve Poppy, they are beginning to feel things. It would not be proper."

"Molly, did you even look in your daughter face?"

"She looks well enough."

"That's because the Potter twins came here and stayed with her for three nights. She slept like a baby. After they left, she couldn't sleep again."

"What about potions?"

"They don't seem to work on her. Even if they did, it would be a short term solution."

"Then we'll have to find another solution, maybe a mind-healer."

Pomfrey frowned at that. "Ginny already said she doesn't want a mind healer. I agree. The best therapy is the Potter twins. They care for each other. Molly, if you do not let her do this, I will not be held responsible for the consequences."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that if something happens to her, it's going to be your fault."

"Molly I believe you should fallow Poppy's advice in this," said Dumbledore. "I am sure that it will be the best solution."

Molly grudgingly agreed.

**-x-x-x-**

Ginny walked in the twins' bedroom. "I did it! I can stay with you whenever I want."

Lucy drew Ginny into a hug. "That's great. I'm glad it's all over. But, didn't you mind lying to your mom and dad?"

"Not really," replied Ginny, "It wasn't even a lie. I just exaggerated my sleeping problem a little and I didn't use occlumency to keep the nightmares away. If I wouldn't use occlumency to sleep better, I'd probably have nightmares even when I'm with you. Mom is probably more worried more about my potential marriage, than about me. Since I come from such a fertile family, she has high hopes for me. If something were to happen between me and Harry, my prospects wouldn't be as good." Ginny was blushing by the end of the statement.

Lucy begun massaging the other girl's back. "Now that you can defend your mind, we can tell you more things."

"What things?"

"We'll tell you tomorrow. For now go to sleep."

Ginny fell asleep between the twins and had the most restful sleep in a long time. In the morning she was kissed awake by Lucy. After a few minutes of kissing, Lucy broke the long kiss and made a trail of small kisses to her neck.

Lucy felt her fangs elongate. She felt the willingness of the girl under her body. Gently, she sank her fangs and started to drink slowly.

Ginny was alarmed at first, but she knew that she would not be harmed. Besides, she never felt so good before. After an eternity of bliss Lucy retreated and Ginny sighed at the loss.

Lucy looked gently at the girl's eyes and smiled in triumph. She saw total acceptance and no trace of fear. She belonged to her. Lucy started kissing Ginny again and felt Harry licking the other side of the girl's neck. She continued the kiss as Harry bit gently.

Ginny never felt happier than in that moment. She knew that she belonged here. No one would keep her from them again, not even her family.

**-x-x-x-**

In the middle of December, The twins, Daphne, Tracy and Ginny went to the dueling club. They were amused to see Lockhart blown away by Snape.

Snape used Draco and Harry for a demonstration duel.

Malfoy started shooting one spell after another.

Harry didn't even bother drawing his wand. He dodged all the spells and slowly approached Malfoy. When he reached the middle of the stage, Malfoy summoned a snake and Harry caught it before it bit him.

Harry looked at the snake. It was not lethal for a wizard, but its poisonous bite would hurt.

He threw it at Malfoy and was rewarded with the look of pain on his face as the snake took a large bite.

Snape sent the wailing Malfoy to the infirmary, and then turned to Harry. "Do you call that a duel, Potter?"

"Call it whatever you want, professor. I'm done here"

**-x-x-x-**

The twins went to the Burrow for Christmas. While everyone went to take their trunk in their room, Molly took Ginny for a talk.

"So, are you better now?"

"I'm fine when they are with me," replied Ginny carefully.

"I see. You should try to get over it and move on. You don't want to bother them much longer."

"They said it is fine with them. They feel better when I'm around, too."

"I see, but sooner or later, you'll have to move on. You can't bother them too much."

"It's fine, I'm not bothering them."

"Listen Ginny, it isn't proper. You'll have to. Anyway the twins can't stay here all summer, so…"

"They said I can stay at their home."

"What?" shrieked Molly, "absolutely not! You will not stay at their home."

"Yes, I can."

"Absolutely not, I am your mother, and my word is final!"

"Mom, they saved my life," said Ginny.

"Yes, I know dear."

"This means that I owe them a life-debt."

Molly's eyes bulged. "Do you mean they are making you do this?"

Ginny looked outraged. "Of course not, but I owe them a life-debt. If I ask them to use the life-debt so I can stay with them, they'll do it; and you won't be able to do anything about it."

"Ginny…"

"Mom, I'll do it if you force me."

Molly looked defeated and accepted. She knew her stubborn girl would really do as she said if pushed too far.

That night Ginny climbed into bed with the twins. "I convinced my mom to let me stay with you for the summer."

"How did you manage that, love?"

"I told her that if she won't let me, I'll tell you use the life-debt."

The twins laughed in unison. "You would have been really good in Slytherin."

"So, do I get a reward?"

"Yes, of course." The twins kissed the girl for a while, then Lucy begun licking the girl's neck. Harry followed Lucy's lead. When Ginny felt that she would die of frustration, the twins sank their fangs at the same time. They waited a few minutes to calmed down from the blood-high,

"I wish we could do this more often," grumbled Ginny.

"We know, but it wouldn't be healthy to do it more often."

"I know, I can't help it though."

Lucy gave Ginny a long kiss. "This summer we'll do some other things. I guarantee you'll be pleased."

"What do you mean?" asked Ginny breathlessly.

"I mean we'll do a ritual of growth and some other rituals this summer… then we'll see."

**-x-x-x-**

On Valentine's Day Lockhart hired dwarfs to recite love letters to students. Harry and Lucy got a few annoying declarations.

"Potter, seams you have a lot of fans," said Malfoy.

"What is it Malfoy, are you jealous that your love didn't send you any?" said Daphne.

"What are you talking about, Greengrass? I don't have a girlfriend."

"O course you don't have a …girl-friend."

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, Malfoy, just be more careful about the persons you enter broom closets with."

"I've never done that!"

"Whatever makes you more comfortable."

"Does this mean that Fred and George are done with the necklace?" asked Harry mentally.

"I think so," replied Lucy.

**-x-x-x-**

The rest of the year went without further incident. The two Hufflepuffs girls were cured. Fortunately, they didn't seem to blame Ginny at all.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author Notes:** This chapter was a double chapter, all of second year.

I do not intent to make Harry more powerful than Voldemort or Dumbledore. In my opinion, it takes decades to reach their level. However there was something like "Two soldiers working as a team are as good (or better) than three soldiers."

For now, Harry is very strong for his age or even for a mature wizard. In a real fight against Voldemort he'll only be able to resist for some time and retreat.

Some might consider that with their ability to absorb knowledge, they are gods. I do not think so. It is possible that Dumbledore and Voldemort can do the same thing, probably on a more reduced scale. But they do not need it. There is no one (probably), with more knowledge than them. If there is new knowledge, it will probably be a new spell, or in a very old forgotten book. In conclusion what the twins do is absorb knowledge faster.

My take on the twins' personality is … the closest thing I could compare it to, is that the twins are a combination of Emperor and Shogun in Japan of a few centuries ago. Alicia would be one of their highest generals.

Now a bit of a SPOILER… Next chapter the 'Lord of Shadows' will 'appear'; we will meet his proxy in the Wizengamot. The twins start using their money. Harry keeps his promise to Lucius… he will take some things from him. We will meet the prisoner of Azkaban. Fred and George will annoy Harry. What will Harry do?

Edited: November 5 2008.

-voider-


	7. Offer and Return

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 7**

**Third year**

**Offer and Return**

**-x-x-x-**

Narcissa Malfoy read the short message brought by the black raven. She pursed her lips in thought, and then came to a decision. "I accept." The letter that served as a portkey, activated.

Narcissa appeared in an opulent hallway. She was impressed by the room. She thought that the Potters would have had the residence in one of the Potter or Black estates. But this seamed something quite different. The stile seamed … Ravenclaw. A house elf in an nice uniform took Narcissa to the meeting with the twins.

"Lord Potter, Lady Black," Narcissa saw another girl beside the twins, "Ms. Weasley, Thank you for the invitation."

"Narcissa, it is nice to see you again. Please sit." After Narcissa made herself comfortable, Harry continued. "I think you suspect some of the reasons we asked for this meeting."

"I believe it is about Lucius."

"Yes, we are going to start destroying the Malfoys. We want to tell you the possibilities. The first is that you stay with Lucius; in which case we will consider you an enemy. The second is that," Harry gestured at a stack of papers, "you divorce. Lucy already signed the divorce papers, as Lady Black. You will receive a generous allowance and a suitable residence anywhere you want. And the third is that you divorce and work for us."

"Work for you?"

"Yes. We are in need of a proxy for our social and political positions. We also need someone to represent us in our business deals. However we will need some guaranties that you will not betray us."

"So you need me to represent the Black and Potter family?"

"Yes, and another three seats."

"So, five," said Narcissa calmly. She wondered who the other seats were from. One might be the Gryffindor, since the Potters were rumored to be the closest relatives. But who were the other seats?

"Yes."

"But, why me?"

"You are a Black and you seem to not really like your husband and his friends. We want to destroy Lucius. You would be good at it. You are very skilled in the political arena, even if you are mostly seen as a trophy wife. Also we know you are a master at potions, you dabble in alchemy and you are good at rituals and ancient spells. The look on your Lucius face when he learns about this would be nice as well."

"Are you really serious?"

"Yes, but only if we are certain of your loyalty."

Narcissa rifled through the divorce papers and signed them. "I Narcissa Black, swear on my life and magic, to serve Harry Potter and Lucy Potter."

"Congratulations Narcissa Black." Harry gave her a box. "These are the proxy rings."

"Thank you my lord…" Narcissa gasped at the family crests on the rings. One of them was Slytherin "So you really are a Slytherin." After she put the rings on her fingers, Narcissa looked in the distance for a long minute, thinking. "I think I know how we can start…"

"Well don't keep the suspense."

"Lucius will not be home today. I am keyed in the wards. I have my personal lab and library. I think I can empty the family library as well. He also has a room filled with artifacts, ancient books and scrolls and other things; most of them are Dark and forbidden by the ministry. If they disappear, he can't really go to the aurors. I say we go and rob him silly. Also I am authorized to withdraw almost five percent from the family vault in case of an emergency."

"Yes, and I am sure that this is a great emergency," said Harry amused.

"Yes my Lord."

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later, after Narcissa acclimatized herself with the castle, the twins decided to make use of Narcissa skills.

Harry produced a small black box from his cloak. "Narcissa you are good at rituals and alchemy."

"Yes my Lord."

"You said that you wasted 14 years with Lucius, the best part of your youth."

"Yes." Narcissa was a little confused. She had divulged some things about her marriage with her ex-husband. She wondered what the connection with her knowledge it had.

"How would you like to get them back?"

"Excuse me?"

"You can perform a ritual of restoration."

"Yes, but this particular branch of rituals is considered Dark by the ministry. And I wouldn't really want to use them. Most of them are not very ... pleasant."

"Yes, not all, but most. However," Harry opened the black box and Narcissa gasped. "I think that this will make it much more pleasant."

"Is that a philosopher stone?" asked Narcissa breathlessly, "I heard rumors that there was one at Hogwarts. They say that you had a fight with a professor possessed by the Dark Lord to keep it away from him. The stone was supposedly destroyed in the fight. How did you manage to convince Dumbledore to keep it?"

"We didn't. We stole it. Dumbledore and Voldemort think that it was destroyed in the fight. We thought that we might have need of it some day."

"Do you know what you can do with this?"

Harry shrugged. "Supposedly, it can make gold and is used to make a youth elixir. That is about all. Since we are already rich, we might as well use it for the ladder purpose. We know a fair bit about the subject, but it's not too much."

"There are many ways to make your body young. The Darker rituals are easier, but they have more drawbacks. There are many Dark rituals to do it, like using a young being as a sacrifice; a significant amount of magical power is required as well. The stone is the Light way. The only drawback is that after a few uses, it provokes sterility. It is magic's way to compensate. It can be used not only in rituals of restoration, but in many others. The stone somehow has a core. If you use it in rituals, its magic depletes. It can be recharged by the ambient magic that is all around us, but it's very slow. You can use the wards and link them to the stone and it will be a bit faster. The faster way though, is to use your own core to recharge it. Dumbledore has a massive core, so he could fully charge it in a month. To do it in the same amount of time we would need a few dozen wizards of average power. The stone is now almost depleted. However, I think that for our own small purposes it would be more than enough."

"Good. I want you to use it. We also want you to perform three rituals of growth. We want our bodies to grow 2 years."

"Since it is such a small amount of time and we have the stone, there is no need for a lengthy ritual. I can make potions. It will also use our core to change our bodies. We'll be in some pain for an hour, and then we'll sleep for about a day."

"How long will it take you to prepare?"

"Not much my Lord, a few days."

**-x-x-x-**

Only four days later, Narcissa entered the twins' bedroom with four potions.

"Are those the potions?" asked Lucy.

"Yes, my lady."

Narcissa gave each of the three a potion, while she kept the fourth. "We should all make ourselves comfortable. It will take less than a minute for the potion to take effect. After that I doubt that we will be able to move."

"Cheers." They all drunk the potion fast and made themselves as comfortable as possible before the pain set in.

**-x-x-x-**

Ginny woke first. She thought that she would feel bad, stiff and in pain, but she was filled with energy. She crawled to Lucy and shook her gently. Lucy opened her eyes. Ginny was a little scared-Lucy's eyes shone as green as always, but the white of her eyes were purple.

Lucy immediately pushed Ginny under her, pulling her into a passionate kiss, making her forget about her fear. Lucy's hands roamed all over the girl's body, making her moan in pleasure.

Ginny gasped when she felt a finger penetrate her. The kiss ended, and Lucy made a trail of small licks and kisses to her breasts.

A short time later, when Ginny was about to explode, Lucy bit her breast, making Ginny explode in pleasure.

Lucy relaxed her head on the bosom of her friend and was hugged deeply by Ginny.

Narcissa looked at the scene in fascination. She knew that the three were very close, but not this close. She never knew that they, or at least Lucy were vampires. Judging by the crimson in the girl eyes, the 2 years of growth must have made the girl loose a bit of her control.

Harry woke at the pleasure his other half felt, he was usually more controlled than his sister, but in that moment he didn't care about it. He embraced Narcissa from behind, making her stiffen in surprise. He licked her neck, making her shudder slightly. He moved his attention upwards to her mouth.

Narcissa was alone for 14 years. A part of her told her to run away, but the other part wanted release and pleasure from her Lord; it also wanted affection or even love-something she never had with Lucius. She did not hope for love, but she somehow knew that the tender kiss she was receiving meant that Harry at least felt affection towards her; something she almost forgot. Other Lords would just use her as they please, the twins used her too, but they took care of her as well. They wanted her to be happy. They entrusted to her a great position, they did not want to make of her a trophy. They gave her leave to use their influence to help her sister Bellatrix, even if it wasn't advantageous for them. For all these reasons she did not protest when Harry took off her clothes, she did not protest when he took his own clothes off, nor did she protest his caresses, kisses and licks. When he entered her, she gave herself completely to his ministrations. And when he bit her at their simultaneous release, Narcissa knew that she finally found a home.

**-x-x-x-**

A group of eight vampires appeared at the edge of a forest. One of them started walking towards an imposing castle. The other seven followed her, impressed by what they were seeing. They were greeted by four people. Two of them seemed to be green-eyed twins. Behind them was a red-head girl. The last person was a young, beautiful, blond woman.

The young vampire rushed towards the figures and gave a quick embrace to the boy and a longer one to his twin. Then she returned to the boy, relaxing in his embrace.

Luciella was the first to join Alicia. She became her second after she witnessed her power. She was impressed; a child of less than two decades had power almost as strong as an ancient vampire. As a natural vampire, Alicia would naturally be a master, albeit a weak one. In only two years, she gathered a core of seven master vampires, she killed the betrayers of her father and conquered her old coven. They all came here to meet Alicia's masters. She did not talk much about them. All they knew was that there were two, a male and a female. Luciella could not be more surprised. Instead of two ancients, she felt wizards.

All the vampires were feeling nervous. Luciella was the Second; she was the one that had to speak. "Mistress," she waited as Alicia turned in the wizards embrace.

"Yes?" The wizard was kissing Alicia's shoulder. One of his hands was on her belly, and the other on her chest, just below the neck.

The vampires were nervous. Master vampires did not behave submissively to wizards.

"We are yours to command as you please." The others quieted at her words. "However, others will not accept this. Wizards do not command vampires. You must…" Luciella did not know what else to say; she was Second, but she could not presume to give orders to her mistress.

Before she could even think what to say, the wizard girl Blinked in front of Luciella. "Kneel," whispered Lucy in a voice filled with compulsion and command.

Luciella was so surprised that she didn't even try to fight the compulsion. Every race had its own way of travel. Vampires could Blink. In a fraction of a second, vampires could appear anywhere in their line of site, as long as a ward was not in the way. She didn't only feel the wizard aura. She could now feel the vampire aura as well, and it felt like an ancient.

Lucy licked the vampire neck, and then sank her fangs deeply.

Luciella was scared. She wondered if she would be drained. Now that she thought about it, she wondered why she opened her mouth so quickly, Second or no Second.

Lucy licked the wound and healed it long before she weakened the vampire. She then lightly bit her own finger sucking some blood, and then kissed the vampire giving her the blood in her mouth. When a stronger vampire gives blood to a weaker one, it usually meant favor or forgiveness, though this wasn't the usual way to do it.

Lucy then walked slowly to Alicia and whispered a few words.

Alicia smiled at Luciella and gave her orders. "We have a whole wing devoted to the coven. The whole coven will take residence there. Luciella, you will handle it. Ask the house-elves for anything you need. We have enough food and bottled blood-thanks to the mundane hospitals, so there is no need to worry. We will also help in guarding the castle. For now, start bringing in the rest of the coven. The house-elves will provide you with portkeys. We'll talk more tomorrow. Until then, relax a bit and have fun."

The five figures disappeared, leaving slightly shocked vampires. The headquarters of their former coven was not good enough for habitation. Their new home was big enough to house all of the vampires in a single wing. However this was not what was the most impressive thing. It was the massive wards on both the island and the castle. The coven would have a safe home, plenty of food and blood and, by the power that Lucy showed, two more masters that were stronger than Alicia. As Alicia was still young and new to her position, the coven would be vulnerable for years. Changes in leadership were bloody business, so all of the vampires would be happy that their three masters were powerful and trusted each-other. After years of fighting, they would have a safe home at last.

**-x-x-x-**

Alicia woke herself from her slumber. She sighed in pleasure at the feel of contentment that the twins' naked embrace produced.

Yesterday, when she came back after two years, she found that her masters now looked like 15-16 year olds. They had two females with them. She immediately knew that the two shared their beds, and more. She couldn't help but feel a little jealous. She wanted to be the first. But that immediately disappeared. They dismissed the girls and took her to their bedroom. In the hours that followed, she lost her maidenhood, and so did her mistress, they said that they waited for her for their first time

Alicia nibbled Lucy's ear as Harry tightened his embrace. She groaned in anticipation as Harry 'woke'.

**-x-x-x-**

Bellatrix mind started to clear. Each day, more and more of her sanity returned, despite the dementors. She would never be considered sane. After years of muggle therapy she could become a well-adjusted sociopath. For now, the small shreds of sanity that begun to return made her think. Once, when she was young, she was a completely different person. After her despicable family forced her into marriage with an obedience clause, they also saw fit to 'sell' her to that abomination of a Dark Lord. For years she could not even think without the permission of her masters. It got better after the Dark Lord… died, but not by much. She spent years in Azkaban with the same obedience curse joining the dementors in grinding her frail mind into pieces. But now, for the first time in so many years, she began to think for herself. She felt a new Black Lord. He or she must have dissolved her marriage contract. The 'slave bond' to the Dark Lord was also transferred to the new Lord Black. Maybe her new master would be wordy of her service. Now that she could think for herself, she began to plot. She would escape. She was an animagus; even the Dark Lord did not know of it. In a weak or two, she would be strong enough to fly away. She would have to find a safe place to recover. Going to Narcissa could be too much of a risk. If the death eaters found out that she did not serve the Dark Lord, she would be in danger. She would stay away from all until she was strong enough to protect herself.

**-x-x-x-**

For the remaining of the summer, the twins, Narcissa, Ginny and Alicia performed more rituals.

The coven arrived at the castle. They begun training and studying. With the addition of the vampire guards, the castle was well protected. Alicia and Luciella selected bodyguards for Narcissa, who would be entering the public arena as the proxy of the 'Lord of Shadows'. They would provoke more chaos. Everybody would wonder who the mysterious Lord of Shadows is, they will expend resources in a futile endeavor, and they will continue to look at the twins as simple pawns. The Lord of Shadows will make his position and intention clear. Their opponents will try to drive a wedge between the new Lord and the twins, never knowing they are one and the same.

The twins stopped their mental plans at the expression on Ginny's face. She was lying on the bed, staring into space.

"Ginny?" asked Lucy, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just hoping that mom and dad didn't spend all the money they won, on their trip to Egypt. I'd like to buy some things."

"If you need anything, we will provide."

"It's okay, I don't want to bother. I'm sure it won't be a problem."

An annoyed Lucy pinned Ginny down. "What do you mean by bother, my pet? You belong to us. If you need something, we will provide. We gave you a new and better wand when you needed it. Whatever you need, you don't have to ask the Weasleys or anyone else. You belong to us. It is our duty to make sure you have everything you need."

"But, mum and dad won't like it."

"We don't care. We'll tell them about the adoption. If they say anything, we will simply say that you worked for us during the summer. And if they ask what you did, we'll just tell them that you promised not to say since you did confidential work for the house of Potter. The money you have is your pay. Is that understood, pet?"

"Yes."

"Very good love. Now… I'll have to reward you for your answer."

"Yes mistress," moaned Ginny.

**-x-x-x-**

At the end of August, the Weasleys returned from Egypt. The twins, Ginny, Alicia and Luciella flooed to the Burrow. The Weasleys were shocked at the five people.

"Ginny?" shouted Molly, "what happened to you?"

"Nothing mom, me and the twins have been working out and studying all summer. The house-elves said that we have to eat healthy, so feeding us became their primary mission. They gave us some potions with every meal as well. After about a month, we realized that we grew-up a bit. Don't worry. We're perfectly healthy."

Molly didn't like that her little girl wasn't as little as before.

"So… Harry, who are the two new girls?" asked Fred.

"They are Alicia and Luciella. They are our bodyguards for today."

"Bodyguards?" gasped Molly, "what happened?"

"Oh nothing, you know… better safe than sorry and all that."

"We thought you have only one bodyguard," said George.

"No, we have a lot of them, they are family retainers," said Harry amused.

"Harry mate, are all your bodyguards so cute?"

"No, they are the cutest."

After some more small talk, Molly invited the guests to dinner. Ron couldn't stop grumbling about the twins and staring at the vampires.

Finally Ginny lost her temper. She drew her wand and pointed it at Ron. "Ron, if you don't stop grumbling and staring at the girls, I'll hex you into oblivion."

"You can't do magic out of school," sneered Ron.

"Maybe not, but I can kick your ass."

"You!? You're just a girl."

"Keep it up Ron, and I'll show you what I learned this summer."

Ron was about to make a retort, but changed his mind. "Mom, Ginny has a new wand."

"Ginny? Where did you get that?"

"I got it from the twins' mom," said Ginny evenly.

"Ginny, I told you that you can't accept…"

"Yes she can, Ms. Weasley," said Lucy, "after all she is one of our heirs, and she is also formally adopted into the Potter family. As such we are as responsible for her as you are."

"That's not fair," shouted Ron.

Molly send her boys away from the room and demanded an explanation.

After half an hour of explanations Molly seemed to relax about the situation. She seemed awfully pleased that Ginny would inherit in the case of their deaths, though she didn't really show it. Lucy sent a probe of legilimency at Molly, but surprisingly she encountered quite a strong occlumency shield.

They asked Ginny about it when they returned home.

"Well… mom used to tell us the story about the twins who lived. She kind of encouraged us into thinking that… you'll be sorted in Gryffindor. Harry, Lucy, Ginny and Ron would become the best of friends. I would marry with Harry and Ron with Lucy."

"Me and Ron?" said Lucy disgusted.

"Yeah, I used to think that this was my dream, but I realize now that mom was plotting our lives since we were babies. You know... mom and Dumbledore know each other. From time to time they talk in private. I think mom is part of Dumbledore's schemes. If you'd have lived as muggles and somehow got sorted into Gryffindor, you and Ron might have become friends. But Ron hates Slytherins. Dumbledore and mom could have manipulated us somehow. I wouldn't put a love potion past them. I probably would have done whatever mom said to seduce you. Before I met you and really got to know you, I was just a stupid vapid fan-girl. If we got married and you both died, all your fortune would go into mom's and Dumbledore's hand. You already said that Dumbledore is an enemy."

"Yes," said Lucy, "and if that bloody prophecy is true, his plan was to use us to kill Voldemort and then die in the process. Then, if we were married to you and Ron, all our money would go to him, your mom and whoever else is involved in this."

"Yeah," said Ginny, "now that they know that I am one of your heirs, they'll try to find out what exactly I am heir to and who the other heirs are. If they find out, they'll probably kill them, so that I'll be the only one."

Harry smiled like a shark. "Yes, and I know how to confuse them even more. We'll make them believe that the Lord of Shadows is the Lord to at least the Slytherin and Ravenclaw titles, and that we are his heirs. Dumbledore might suspect that we already have the Gryffindor title. They'll take the bait. They'll exhaust themselves in finding who the mysterious lord is. They'll want to kill him first not only to increase our fortune, but also because they will see him as a new player and rival."

"We're just guessing here. We don't know if this really is their plan," said Ginny.

"It's possible, but even if it isn't, it doesn't mean they aren't aware of the possibility. Even if Dumbledore does what he does 'for the greater good', he is still a manipulative bastard. If he thinks that he can sacrifice us to kill Voldemort and get our fortune in his hands, to fight against the Dark better, he'll probably do it."

"Yeah, you're right."

**-x-x-x-**

**Author Notes:** Answer to a review: About the necklace Harry gave to Fred and George, It can only put a glamour of only Snape and Draco Malfoy. That's all.

Now… if Harry and Lucy(who have occlumence shields) see a bogart… can they somehow manipulate their deepest fear?... Maybe they can put a totally fabricated fear… or maybe not…you'll see… muhaha

voider


	8. Meetings and Surprise

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 8.**

**Third year.**

**Meetings and Surprise.**

**-x-x-x-**

The twins arrived early at the station. They went in the train to find a compartment. Ginny stopped in front of a compartment with a girl.

"Do you know her?" asked Lucy.

"Yeah, she's Luna Lovegood, she's a claw. We used to play together when we were little, but I haven't really talked to her in a while. When she was nine, her mom died in a spell accident. She saw it. After that she hasn't been the same. She's a little… different. I don't think she has any friends in her house. They call her Loony," finished Ginny sadly.

Harry opened the door. "Hi, can we sit here?"

Luna smiled dreamily at them. "Of course."

"Hi Luna," said Ginny, "This is Harry, and Lucy."

After a few minutes of baffling conversation, about nargles and crumple-horned snorkaks, Ginny asked Luna if she got new friends in Ravenclaw.

"No," said Luna sadly.

"But they are treating you well, aren't they?"

Luna still smiled dreamily, but Harry could see the sadness and loneliness underneath the smile. "I'm fine Ginny."

After some coaxing, they learned that she was harassed and made fun of, that her things were stolen on a regular base. That she was lonely.

Harry smiled gently. "It's okay Luna; we'll be your friends. And we'll come to your dorm room and put a few wards. Next person that tries to steal something from you will get a nasty surprise. And next time anyone annoys you, tell us and we'll have a talk with them."

Luna looked deeply in Harry's eyes. "Why are you nice to me? Do you want to drink my blood?"

Lucy, shocked by the question, tried to look in the girls mind, but retreated quickly from the alien mind. "What are you?" she asked in a dangerous voice.

Ginny intervened quickly. "It's said that the Lovegoods are seers."

At the suspicious look on the twins' face, Luna only smiled serenely. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. I promise. I don't mind that you aren't fully human."

The twins relaxed, their instincts told them that they can trust the strange blond girl. "We are nice to you because that's what friends do. It doesn't matter if you give us blood or not, we'll still be your friends." Harry smiled charmingly. "But I won't complain if you choose to share blood. You smell delicious."

"Okay." Luna sat in Harry's lap. "I don't mind, I'm rather curious actually."

Harry didn't need to be told twice. He embraced the smaller girl gently. She was a little tense, so he stroked her back gently. When she relaxed, Harry sank his fangs slowly and drank only a bit. He then licked the wound, healing it.

Luna was completely relaxed; she let herself feel the contentment brought by the gentle caresses and the afterglow of the bite. "Thank you Harry. That felt wonderful. I'd like to try that again."

"Sure… anytime you want."

"So, Luna…" asked Lucy after a few more minutes of silence. "What do you know about prophecy?"

"My mom was a seer and so am I, though a very weak one. I can only see some glimpses of things about to come. Not important things, but small ones… trivial; usually they are things that involve me and people I know personally…. She said that I shouldn't put too much trust in important prophecies. Fate is not set in stone. There are multiple possibilities. A seer can see a few of those possibilities, but there is no guarantee that that what he sees is true or complete. Everyone makes mistakes, seers included. Sometimes the prophecy becomes invalid, just by being said."

"Really?"

"Yes. If I were to make a prophecy about someone being murdered by a certain poison, he could perform a ritual or something to become immune to the poison. The prophecy becomes invalid. He would probably still be poisoned, but he would survive. But that doesn't mean that the murderer will do the same thing. He could learn that the victim is immune and use a knife."

"What if someone was prophesied to do something, like kill someone… someone evil?"

"Like you and Voldemort?"

"Yes."

"Well, if no one knew about it, you would probably do it. And you did it, didn't you?"

"Yes we did, but he's still around somehow. He is only a shade for now, but he's trying to regain a body. He knows about the prophecy, at least partially. That's why he tried to kill us when we were babies."

"Then, probably the prophecy is already fulfilled. After a prophecy is given, it is no longer valid. Just one person knowing about it can make a huge difference… it is called the butterfly effect."

"I see."

"If no one knew about it, maybe you could have become an auror, and in a large battle managed to kill him. But if he and others know about the prophecy… everything changes. He could kill you before you are strong enough. Those who know about the prophecy could just let you deal with him alone, instead of trying to do it themselves. They could think that since you are prophesied to do it, there is no need for them to prepare. Maybe an entire army is needed to kill him and you were supposed to just give him the last fatal blow. If people only put their fate on you because of the prophecy, instead of doing it themselves, bad things could happen."

"I never heard about this before."

"Prophecy isn't understood very well. Even some seers do not know about it. My mom was an unspeakable, so she learned a lot about it. You can learn some things from a prophecy, but it's not very useful if others know about it. Also, prophecies are difficult to decipher. Most of the times, a prophecy is fully understood only after it is fulfilled. My advice is to ignore it, unless it says something concrete."

"I understand."

"There are also self-fulfilling prophecies. Mom told me a story. There was a prophecy made to a king a long time ago. It said that he would die because of a boy born in a certain year. The king became so obsessed about it that, when the year came, he ordered all the new-born boys to be killed. One of them escaped, it was his son. In time, the boy rebelled and killed the king. Who knows what would have happened if the prophecy was not given. Would the king have died? Maybe he only died because he listened to the prophecy. Perhaps the king would have gladly died, protecting his son. Or he would have died poisoned by his son. No one can know for certain."

"Thanks Luna." Harry continued to hug the strange girl. He did not see a reason not to ask her about the prophecy, after all Voldemort knew about it; no great harm could come off it. He was more surprised about her knowing about the blood thing. She reacted quite calmly.

Lucy followed Harry's thoughts. 'Perhaps her small ability as a seer showed her that we could be trusted,' said Lucy on their mental link.

'Yes,' replied Harry on the same link, 'I feel that we can trust her. Our instincts never fail us. She will not betray us. After such a short meeting I trust her as much as Daphne and Tracy, even more since her mind is so alien that not even we can enter it. We must hide things from them because their occlumency shields can't stop Dumbledore or Snape, if they try to break them.'

The twins were interrupted in their mental conversation by the apparition of Daphne and Tracy. Daphne only raised an eyebrow at the girl in Harry's lab. Tracy only snickered a little. The girls made themselves comfortable and prepared to say a few witty words, but they were interrupted by the opening of the door.

Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones entered and checked the occupants. "Oh… sorry. We thought we could stay with you… We'll find another compartment."

Harry drew his wand. "There's no need." Harry made a few swishes with the wand and the compartment suddenly doubled in size. "Have a seat."

"Thanks." The girls sat down and started talking with Ginny, Daphne and Tracy. They seemed to be on friendly terms. They especially didn't seem to hold a grudge over the diary incident.

After an hour of small talk, Susan changed the topic. "So Harry… My aunt was curious about something. It seams that the Potter, Black and three founder seats, suddenly became active this summer. Above their family crests, a new crest was visible. It was a circle split in three - in green, silver and black colors."

"Yes, I know," said Harry.

"You know what the significance of the new crest being above the family crests means, don't you?"

"Of course I do. It means that the five families have suborned themselves to a Lord."

"Who is he? Is it a secret?"

"Actually, yes it is. But on the next Wizengamot session his proxy will be introduced. Make sure your families go. I believe it will be… entertaining."

**-x-x-x-**

"Hey why is the train stopping?" asked Tracy.

Susan looked outside. "There are hooded figures. They are coming inside."

"What is this about? Why is it getting colder?" asked a slightly panicked Hannah.

"Dementors," said Harry, "Tighten your mental shields."

The door opened and a dementor floated inside.

The twins drew their wands. They both launched lances of light at the dementor, who was flung back into a wall, pinned by the lances. It gave an eerie scream. "Expecto Patronum," shouted the twins in unison. Two figures of energy, with swords of light in their hands attacked the screaming thing, plunging their swords in the dementor chest. It screamed even harder. The dementor managed to somehow release itself from the torture and fled down the corridor. One of the figures of light followed the dementor, while the other went in the opposite direction.

**-x-x-x-**

At the welcoming feast, Dumbledore announced that the dementors will guard the school. They were tasked with catching Bellatrix Lestrange. A few minutes after the traditional speech, Harry received a message from Dumbledore.

"What is it?" asked Daphne.

"Dumbledore," replied Harry, "He probably wants to see us about the Dementors."

"Yeah, but don't forget about the change in the Wizengamot. I bet he's curious."

"That's a bit of an understatement. He can't stand being kept in the dark."

"Guys, do you know the new DADA professor?" asked Daphne, "I get the impression that he knows you."

"He's Remus Lupin. He was a friend of our parents. Never met him, but I recognize him from some old family pictures. What happened to Lockhart?"

"You don't know?" Daphne grinned evilly. "It seams that someone became suspicious about him because of what you said, and what got published in the Prophet last year. Lockhart tried to Obliviate him after interviewing him, but it seams that his victim was not in the mood. Lockhart is dead. It seams that all his exploits were stolen and embellished.

**-x-x-x-**

When the twins arrived at the headmaster's office, they were surprised to see that he was not alone. "Headmaster, Minister Fudge."

"Harry, Lucy, please sit down. I think you know why you are here."

"Actually we don't."

"There are two reasons," said Fudge, "the first one is about the Potter and Black seat in the Wizengamot. It seams that your ancient families suborned themselves to another. I would like you to explain."

Fudge was one of the most corrupt people; he let many death eaters to pay their way out of Azkaban. Harry's hands twitched; he wanted to slit his throat. "We have nothing to explain. You will be informed of any pertinent information at the next Wizengamot session."

"Come now Harry, I can call you Harry, right?" Fudge didn't even try to wait for an answer. "Surely you can tell me, I am the Minister after all."

"You will have to wait, minister."

"I see... the second reason is about your actions concerning the dementors."

Harry smirked mentally; he knew what Fudge was trying to pull. "I see. You came to offer apologies and congratulate us." Harry ignored the surprised expression on the minister face. "In regard to the congratulations, we only did what any responsible person would do. Your apologies however, would be more welcomed if you would have ordered the retreat of the foul dementors from here. A school full of innocent and defenseless children is hardly the place for them."

"I do not think you understand the situation, Mr. Potter," said Fudge annoyed. "The dementors are here for the protection of all children, and Neville Longbottom in particular. Lestrange might come after him. What you did in the train was obstruction of the law. The dementors were there to catch Lestrange. Your action against the dementors was unwise and illegal. However, I am the minister of magic. I might be persuaded in helping you."

Harry was not in the mood to talk to Fudge. That was Narcissa's job. "We do not bow down to threats or blackmail," said Harry coldly. "Do as you wish, minister. Accuse us of whatever you want. Just remember that we will not go down easy, and if we do, we will not go down alone." The twins got up. "This conversation is over. We're warning you to keep the dementors far away from us. Good night headmaster, minister."

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later, at their first DADA lesson for the year, professor Lupin informed the third years that they would face a boggart. When the twins turn came, Lupin didn't want to let them face it.

"It is fine professor, said Harry. "It's not like our greatest fear is Riddle."

Some Slytherins bristled at the name. Ever since their second year, the twins called the Dark Lord, Tom the half-blood-Riddle in jest, without fear. Some upperclassmen tried to show them the error of their ways, but they invariably got a few days in the hospital, courtesy of the twins.

Lupin was confused; he didn't know who this Riddle was. He did not want He-who-must-not-be-named to show up in the classroom. "Riddle?"

"Yeah, it is Voldemort's true name," said Harry. "Now let's see our greatest fear." The twins stepped in front of the boggart.

Instead of a boggart, Snape and Malfoy appeared. They were hugging and then they begun to do something horrible…

"Lucy!" shouted Harry. "I thought you got rid of this memory."

"I did. It must be yours."

"I got rid of it. Occlumency is not enough. We'll have to learn how to Obliviate."

The students were looking in fascinated horror. Draco was white as a sheet.

Lupin stepped in front of the twins. The disgusting apparitions disappeared, giving way to a moon. After the professor got rid of the boggart, everyone stared at Draco.

"You did this Potter. It's your fault. I'll kill you."

"It's your own fault Malfoy," said Daphne. "If you don't want others to see you, be more discreet."

"You'll pay for this Potter!" snarled Malfoy as he stormed out.

**-x-x-x-**

"So, how did you do it?" asked a grinning Tracy.

"Well… it's because…" Harry stopped talking. He drew his wand and started firing stunners behind the group. He hurried to the place he sent his shots, but found nothing.

"What is it Harry?" asked Daphne.

"This is the third time I sensed something similar. First time was over the summer, in Diagon alley, and the other two times in Hogwarts. It felt like someone was spying on us. Whenever you talk, especially if it is important, remember to cast the wards we thought you."

"Okay. So how did you do that thing with Malfoy and Snape?"

"I used occlumency to trick the boggart about my worst fear. And now that I saw it, I might not be lying."

"You can say that again," said Tracy. "I love that Fred and George. Once a few months, they ender a broom closet disguised as Snape and Malfoy."

"Snape still doesn't know why some of the students are snickering when he talks to Malfoy," said Daphne. "Almost everyone knows a bit of occlumency, so he doesn't dare to try legilimency. I can barely wait to see what he does when he finds out."

**-x-x-x-**

Five figures approached the entry to the Wizengamot. An auror tried to stop them, but was stopped by the five rings on the hand of the center figure. They advanced in silence, toward the three newly activated chairs of the founders. One of them sat in the Ravenclaw seat; another, in the Gryffindor seat; the other three took their positions as bodyguards.

The lords started whispering amongst themselves.

"Perhaps our new colleagues would want to introduce themselves," said Dumbledore.

"Of course," the figure on the Ravenclaw seat showed her face. "I am Narcissa Black, the proxy for the Lord of Shadows." She showed her five rings.

Everyone was shocked. Lucius was giving her a look of pure hate.

"What about your companions, Lady Black?" asked Dumbledore.

"Bodyguards."

"Shouldn't a bodyguard guard? Why is that one sitting in the Gryffindor seat?" asked a voice.

She is Alicia, leader of the Moon Shadow coven. Everyone gasped as the vampire showed her face.

"That's impossible," said someone. "She died years ago. Since then, the coven was involved in a long civil war."

"I assure you I am not dead. The traitors that betrayed my father were dealt with."

The members seemed to be displeased.

"…Vampire…"

"… Dark creatures…"

"How dare they bring…"

"Abominations… foul creatures…"

Dumbledore produced a bang and the hall quieted.

"I demand that … these abominations be evicted. If Godric Gryffindor knew that a vampire stood on his seat, he would turn in his grave," said a Lord loyal to Dumbledore.

"How do you know that?" asked Alicia.

"What?"

"I said 'how would you know that,' did he tell you?" sneered Alicia.

"Of course not, it's common sense. He's dead. He can't talk, unlike other dead things."

"I asked Godric's portrait if I can sit in his chair," said Alicia, "he said that I can sit wherever I want."

"Also, you can't evict anyone, even if they are non-humans," said Narcissa. "I have five rings. If I give each of my bodyguards one of my proxy rings, then they can't be evicted even if you call a secret session."

The Lords grumbled, but Dumbledore intervened. "It is as Lady Black said." There were some grumblings, but they finally subsided.

It was not over, Lucius tried something else. "I demand that this… Lord of Shadows be arrested."

"On what reason?" asked Narcissa.

"The Potters suborned themselves to another. It is obvious that they are used. They must be taken from his influence and placed in a better, pureblood family."

"By a 'better, pureblood family', I assume you refer to yourself?"

"Yes, but I am not the only one. I am sure that we can find a suitable home."

"In other words, you want to place them with you or your death eater friends."

"I am not a death eater. I was under the imperious, you bitch."

"Of course you were," she said mockingly. "There is no way a pureblood like you would become a slave to a half-blood."

"What? You are lying."

"Come, did you not know that Voldemort, or Tom Riddle is a half-blood? His father was a muggle."

"That's a lie," said Lucius. The other death eaters seemed to want to protest, but they did not want to be too outspoken.

"Anyway, back to your demand. I'm afraid that it won't be possible, Lucius. The Potter twins are legally adult, so there is no legal way to place them somewhere they don't want. Also, I do not see how they are used. They are the Lord of Shadows' heirs after all. They stand to inherit quite a lot." Narcissa smirked mentally at her announcement."

Dumbledore quieted the room again. "Perhaps Lady Black would like to present her political agenda and affiliations."

"Of course chief warlock," said Narcissa. "The Lord of Shadows does not belong to the Dark." Dumbledore twinkled. "Nor does he belong to the Light." Dumbledore stopped twinkling. "He considers himself Gray. As you see from my companions, one of our primary objectives is to restore the rights of the non-human groups. We do not confound Dark with evil, nor do we confound Light with good…."

**-x-x-x-**

The twins, Daphne and Tracy were in the room of requirement.

"Are we waiting for someone else, beside Ginny?" asked Daphne.

"Actually yes, Susan, Hannah, Luna and Su Li want to join us in training," said Harry.

"But, we are practicing Dark spells."

"I know, they know and they don't mind too much. It seams that Amelia Bones the Abbott family are interested in an alliance. They are Light families, but they do not like Dumbledore. They were neutral like the Greengrass and Davis family. It seams that a lot of the neutrals were interested in an alliance. We will control about 20 percent of the Wizengamot in a month. The death eater families and the Dumbledore loyalists control about 30 percent each. The rest are neutrals."

Daphne laughed. "This means that we can support the Dark or Light families. Since the rest of the neutrals are split in the middle, whoever we support, wins."

"Yeah."

"Ok, I like and approve the puffs, we were friends before we went to school. What about the two Ravenclaws?" asked Daphne.

"Well Luna… is Luna. Su Li is a very powerful witch, proficient in Chinese battle magic. She's a little shy, doesn't stand out, but she's smarter than Granger. Voldemort killed some of her family. I like her; anyway, it'll be nice for Ginny to have a partner as powerful as her."

"If you say so… but more people means more risks."

"Don't worry. They all have strong mental shields. They also gave their oaths of silence. They won't talk about the specifics of our training."

"In any case, we needed people from the other houses," said Lucy. "We can stop the bullying in Slytherin, but the other houses are outside of our control. With the new members of our club, we can expand our influence."

"I see that we have an unrepresented house," said Tracy.

"Do you really want a Gryffindork?" asked Harry incredulously. "Can you even imagine someone like Lavander with us? Don't worry about them. If there's a problem with them, we can talk to Fred and George."

"What about Granger?" asked Daphne. "I don't like her and I don't trust her, but she's smart."

Lucy grimaced at the question. "No. Granger is too much of a teacher's pet. She'd run to Dumbledore faster than you can say 'five years in Azkaban'. She's friend to Weasley and Longbottom. I don't want them near us."

"Yeah," said Harry. "We tolerate their presence in the library, when they come to talk to us, because Dumbledore put them up to it. But I don't like them and I trust them as much as I trust Dumbledore, which is none at all."

**-x-x-x-**

Wormtail was following the Potter twins on their first Hogsmeade visit. He watched Harry using a Patronum to frighten the approaching dementors. He followed, but always kept his distance. When the twins were on their way back to the castle, they suddenly stopped. They told something to the five girls-two snakes, two puffs and a claw. The girls continued to Hogwarts and the twins went towards the forest. The rat went after the twins.

Wormtail watched in horror as Bellatrix Lestrange, the Psycho-bitch from hell kneeled at their feat. He wanted to get closer, but if he did, the twins would sense him. It didn't even matter if he got closer. The twins and their friends always put wards against spying when they were speaking.

After about ten minutes of discussions, Harry gave Bellatrix an object. She disappeared; it was a portkey.

Wormtail was worried. He almost died on a number of occasions in the last few months, three times because of the twins. The damn cat that Granger bought also tried to kill him on every occasion. Remus was a teacher at the school; if he smelled him, he wouldn't have a chance to escape from the enraged werewolf. And now Bellatrix changed sides; she was working for the Potters. She knew that he was the traitor. Everyone thought that Sirius was tortured into giving the Potters away. They thought that Wormtail died as well; if he had met Remus or Dumbledore, he was sure that they would've found out that he was the secret keeper, and the traitor. They were good at smelling lies and guilt. So, he played dead. But now, with Bellatrix working for Harry, it was only a matter of time till Harry found out the truth. When that happened, The Potter twins would hunt him down.

Wormtail decided that going very far away was a good idea.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author Notes: **About the core and horcrux. My take on it. In my opinion, when a horcrux is made, a murder is needed. I think that the core of the murdered person can be used for the horcrux. A horcrux has many defenses. To power them, you need magical energy. If the horcrux has the core of the murdered person, then you can defend it better. If an object has a piece of soul inside, why can't it have a core as well.

Edited: November 20 2008

-voider-

**-x-x-x-**


	9. PrankLegend and Trial

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 9.**

**Third Year.**

**Prank-Legend and Trial.**

**-x-x-x-**

At the beginning of November the Slytherins had their first Quidditch match with Gryffindor. As usual, the Potter twins and the Weasley twins, the beaters, were in their own private war. The students were excited for the first match; perhaps too excited.

In the middle of the game, Harry and Lucy felt the familiar coldness. 'Dementors,' they thought. Due to their mental shields, they were not too disturbed. In the first year, after their trouble with Snape, the twins had asked Hogwarts to give them the list of all students and the magical children that were under the age of eleven. They had been sending a book package to every student from Hogwarts, every child from the magical world under eleven, and to any muggle child over eleven that was visited by a Hogwarts professor and had magic explained. The books not only contained books on occlumency; but also guides to the muggle and magical worlds; a few basic book for the understanding of magic, which should be explained at Hogwarts, but wasn't; a small book for potions that explained why and how potions work, how ingredients react and many other things. Virtually every student could use some rudimentary mental shields. As such, the dementor cold could be worse-more debilitating for the students, but it was not a big difference. Even masters of occlumency were highly affected by their presence. The twins however, were almost immune.

The crowd was panicking. The twins drew their wands. "Expecto Patronum." Two figures of light appeared. Seconds after their spell, Ginny's patronus flew from her wand; it was a raven-like the animagus forms of the twins. Dumbledore phoenix patronus came at the same times as Ginny's. The twins repeated the spell twice.

The dementors were scared by the two flying birds of light. But they were scared by the six patroni of the twins more, much more. The twins launched spears of light at the dementors. They managed to a good hit on two of the dementors. The patroni split into two teams; each of the two injured dementors was surrounded by three figures of light. They attempted to run, but they could not find an opening. The crowd begun to relax, all but two of the dementors ran away and were scattered. Harry and Lucy flew down towards the imprisoned dementors. Dumbledore and a team of three aurors approached the twins.

"Good job," said the grandfatherly Dumbledore. "You may release them now."

Harry was more than irritated at the man's tone. "Release them? Why should I do that? I am going to teach them a lesson."

"Mr. Potter. You are to release them," sneered the auror in command. "Last time you… interfered, it took us a week to calm them enough to do their job."

Harry sneered back at the auror. "It is not my job to care for the ministry's pets. They attacked. Now it is time to pay the price."

"Release them now Potter," snarled the auror. He drew his wand, but froze. Alicia had her sword at his neck. Twelve more vampires surrounded the aurors and the headmaster. "Filthy creature, you're going to die for this."

Since people from outside the school were permitted to attend the Quidditch games, Narcissa decided to come and thank Harry and Lucy in person, for sending Bella to the castle. They had also decided to take extra guards. Luciella and a dozen other guards were to protect Narcissa at all times. Since someone attempted to kill Narcissa-probably Lucius, her guard was reinforced. Alicia and her dozen were on other duties-like keeping an eye on the other girls, the crowd and the twins.

"Silence auror!" said Lucy, "or your boss and the newspapers will hear that you pulled a wand, without reason, on a Lord. We gave our warning. If any dementors attack us, we will retaliate. Since the minister is too stupid to understand, we'll educate the ones with the superior intellect. The dementors will learn to not approach us again."

"Harry, Lucy, I must protest…" begun Dumbledore.

Harry looked coldly at him. "Save it, headmaster. Protest all you like, but we will do what we promised. You allowed this. Children could have died. We will ensure the school's protection, since you do not."

At Harry's final words, the patroni approached the dementors, who begun to wail. The wail increased in volume when they were stabbed by six blades of light. In the distance, the other dementors were wailing as if they felt the pain of their comrades. This continued for almost a minute. Everyone was watching in fascination. The two dementors begun to loose substance and for a second, it looked as if the dementors were destroyed; but it was soon apparent that it was not to be. They passed through their prison of light and fled, shrieking in terror.

"Potter, you'll pay for this."

"Try it, auror. Do you really think that anyone will shed tears for your pets? Do you really think that any accusations will hold? I'd like to see anyone try to accuse us of driving away dementors and protecting children. And I'll see you sacked for this. Since you are the only aurors around here, I suspect that you were responsible for controlling them. If we weren't here, who knows what could have happened. St Mungo could have been full of kissed children."

**-x-x-x-**

"Come in, Harry, Lucy."

"Headmaster."

"I called you to discuss you attitude towards the minister and the aurors."

Harry said nothing and Lucy only raised an eyebrow.

"It is not good to antagonize them."

"Those aurors put the life of every student at risk," said Harry. "Pardon us if we don't really care about their feelings."

"Be that as it may, the minister is…"

"An idiot, incompetent, corrupt, bigoted little man who let the death eaters get out of Azkaban for piles of galleons," interrupted Lucy.

"Whatever his weaknesses, he is still the minister. You should show proper respect, if not for the man, then for the position."

"I'll show no respect, for Fudge or the minister. None is deserved. It is the fault of the minister, ministry and the Wizengamot that we are in the situation we are in. It is their fault for alienating the non-humans and especially the 'Dark creatures.' If not for their stupidity, the war would have been less bloody. The werewolves and vampires would not have sided with Riddle if they had some basic rights. And it still continues. If, or better said, when Voldemort rises again; the discrimination will drive many Dark creatures to join him."

Dumbledore looked disappointed at them. "If you continue this, the political situation will get worse."

"I don't see how much worse it can get. I can't wait to see Fudge get kicked out of the office."

"Harry, for all of his shortcomings, Fudge is not a death eater. If another minister is elected, he may be one."

"So what, what difference would it make? If Malfoy is Fudge best friend, what difference does it make? In any case, since you control about 30 percent of the votes for the Light side, and the Gray faction controls about 20 percent, I can't see how a death eater can be elected."

**-x-x-x-**

The girls were expecting the twins in the Room of Requirements.

"So, what did Dumbledore want?" asked Daphne.

Both of the twins made a disgusted face. "He doesn't want us to rock the political boat. He wants Fudge as a minister. He made an excuse that if a new minister is elected, he may be a death eater."

Daphne snorted. "Right, that's pathetic, even from him. It almost seams as if he is sabotaging the Light side."

"So, I assume that the daily prophet will criticize the ministry for the dementor incident?" asked Susan.

"I already put Narcissa on it," said Harry. "Now… since we had all this trouble with dementors, we should concentrate on the Patronus charm."

**-x-x-x-**

On the Christmas holiday, all of the girls went to their own homes. They would try to convince their families to let them spend the summer holiday at the twins.

The twins went to their home and were welcomed by Narcissa. "My Lord, My Lady, welcome home."

"Narcissa, how is Bella?"

"She is much better My Lord. She is waiting for you in the library."

Harry nodded and started towards the library.

"As you ordered, I took the liberty of using the stone in restoring her body. However, her mind is not very stable."

Harry nodded in acceptance and entered the library.

Inside, a beautiful 20 years old Bellatrix Black with a long mane of jet-black hair kneeled at Harry's feat. "Master."

"Rise Bella. You look very good."

"Thank you, master. I feel good. Your presence is calming."

**-x-x-x-**

A few days after the school started again, the twins and the girls-Daphne, Tracy, Ginny, Susan, Hannah, Luna and Su Li entered the great hall in a group, since they were always studying and practicing together.

Suddenly, Ginny stopped. She opened her mouth and exhaled a sickly green mist. She then transformed into a cat of some kind. She exhaled more of the vapor, making those around her cough.

"The nundu!" screamed a first-year.

"Run for your lives!" screamed another.

All of the first years started to run away from the hall like headless chickens.

Harry cast a Finite and Ginny came back to herself.

"I'm going to kill Fred and George," snarled Ginny.

"Yeah," said Daphne. "But first we have to find out why all of the first years are afraid of us."

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later a class of first years exited their class. They barely made a few steps when they found their path blocked by Daphne and Tracy. They turned around only to see the twins.

"Listen up," said Daphne. "You are going to follow me. Then you are going to answer some questions. Then you're free to go. Is that understood?"

The first-years nodded and followed her to an unused classroom. Harry erected some privacy wards then signaled to Daphne to begin.

"Is anyone going to say why you are afraid of us?"

"It's the legend," said one of the braver girls.

"What legend?"

"The legend of the Queen, the Prince, the Princess and the nundu; Fred and George told it first. Then some of the other students began to add to it. We know it's not true, but it's fun and it kind of suits you. Every character from the legend has a matching student. There are stories about them. And they match your personalities. You're the Queen."

"That's nice," said Daphne. "What about Harry and Lucy?"

"They are the prince and princess," said the now blushing girl. "They were powerful warriors. They battled and defeated an evil wizard."

"Ginny?"

The girl gulped. "She… she's the nundu. The princes' pet."

"I see. She won't like it. What about Susan and Hannah?"

"Virgin sacrifices?" said the girl weakly.

Tracy snorted. "That's a good one. What about me?"

"The girl blushed again and looked at her feet. "You're the Queen's sex-slave," she mumbled.

Tracy was surprised, but she didn't look unpleased. "Luna?"

"She's the angel."

"What about Su Li?"

"She's the dreaded assassin."

"I see. Listen. I want to see all the stories you heard, write them down," said Daphne.

The first-years nodded in relief at the small request.

"Do you know the story of the nundu?"

"No. Can you tell us?" asked an excited boy.

"The nundu," said Daphne, "was not always a nundu. She was just an innocent girl. Her brothers tried to sell her as a slave to a bad old man. The girl escaped but the brothers caught her. As a punishment, they cursed her to become a nundu. For years she wondered the world, until she came to the site of a battle. The Prince and the Princes were battling bad wizards. They were surrounded and weak from the prolonged battle. The nundu decided to help them. She attacked the evil wizards and defeated them. As a reward, the Princess dispelled the curse. The girl served the princess since then."

"What about the brothers?"

"The Prince swore that someday they would be punished."

"How?"

"You'll see their punishment at dinner," said Harry mysteriously. "Get to the hall early."

**-x-x-x-**

Fred and George entered the great hall. They sensed that something was wrong. Every first-year was looking at them in anticipation. Suddenly they transformed in two weasels. They froze for a second, and then they screamed in pain.

"Oh my god! They are shitting galleons," said a first-year.

The weasels looked at what happened. They begun to run away from the great hall, but they stopped for a few seconds to scream and expeled two more gold galleons.

Ron went towards his brothers and picked the coins, he then followed them. "Hey, wait for me!"

Daphne looked at the moronic Gryffindor. "That's disgusting. It's too bad that he doesn't know that it's leprechaun gold."

"Yeah, I'd like to see his face when it all vanishes," said Tracy.

**-x-x-x-**

Harry, Lucy, Daphne, Tracy, Ginny, Susan, Hannah, Luna and Su Li, were sitting at the Slytherin table as usual. At first there were many complains, not only from the students, but from the teachers as well. One or two people sitting on another table, from time to time was fine. But five people sitting regularly at the Slytherin table were not welcomed. It was bad enough when it was only Ginny, but having three puffs and two claws - one of which was 'Loony' and the other the aloof Su Li made it much worse. There were some altercations with the non-Slytherin members, since everyone knew from experience that threatening the four Slytherins was not healthy. However, with the training the others received in the room of requirement, the girls learned to at least defend themselves until the twins came for rescue. The pendants the group was wearing could send a signal when one of them was in danger. It only needed a mental ping from the owner to send the danger signal as well as its location. But it wasn't always needed. After Su Li got annoyed and send three Slytherins and a Ravenclaw in hospital for a week, the things begun to calm down. The professors attempted to punish them after every attack, but Harry always put the idea to sleep.

In the first and second year, the professors got used to Daphne, Tracy, the twins-and Ginny-after the diary incident, refusing to do 'unlawful' detentions. Snape was not pleased when, in the second year, Ginny-a puff and a Weasley became a very close friend to the twins. He had five students that he could not even take points from. Snape and Dumbledore tried repeatedly to make the twins end Snape's inability to give detentions and take points to the twins and their close friends, but the twins did not budge and only threatened to change schools and take their friends with them, if the deal they made in the first year was broken. When four more members were added, Snape almost had an apoplexy.

Harry opened the Daily Prophet on the first page. For a very long time, the paper was under the influence of the ministry and whatever pureblood gave the biggest bribe. Thanks to Narcissa, who took control of it, the news was more truthful and presented more facts and less speculations and gossip.

Harry begun to read the article: 'Bellatrix Black declared innocent.' He quickly read it. Everything seamed to be in order: no lies, half-truths or speculations.

An angry Neville Longbottom, trailed by Ron and Hermione, approached the Slytherin table and threw a newspaper in front of Harry. "What the hell is this, Potter?" he snarled.

"The Daily Prophet?!"

"I know that, you bastard. I want to know why you freed that Lestrange bitch." No one ever saw Neville in this state.

"First, it is Bellatrix Black; second, you will not insult her in my presence; third, I didn't free her."

"Bullshit! Narcissa works for your 'Lord of Shadows'," he sneered. It was a good pureblood sneer. Harry was impressed. "It's you and your master's fault that she got free, you bastard."

"Did you even read what was in there, Longbottom? She is innocent."

"Innocent? She tortured my parents. And everyone knows that half of what that newspaper says is a lie."

"Yes, she tortured them. But it was her former husband that drove them over the age. She had no choice in what she did. She was under slave bonds. Even under their influence, she saved your life. You should thank her for saving you."

"You are lying. She escaped just like the other death-eaters who claimed to be under the Imperius."

"No she didn't. They escaped without being questioned under veritaserum, by bribing their way out. Bella proved her innocence. When she was young she was a different person, but then she was given as a slave to Lestrange and Tom. She became what she became only after weeks of torture and rape by her husband, Tom and his death eaters. She is more of a victim than you. If you want to punish someone, punish those who are responsible."

"Like who?" asked Neville in a quieter voice.

"Like the Lestrange brothers, Malfoy, Nott, Avery, Crouch and all the other death eaters. Blame Fudge and all the corrupt and incompetent ministry officials that botched the war, the trials and our everyday life. Blame the incompetent war leaders. Blame the despicable Wizarding society, laws, traditions and the Wizengamot, for it is they that create suffering. It is they that make people suffer. It is they that create one Dark Lord after another."

Neville calmed down and nodded once before leaving. "I'll have to think about this."

**-x-x-x-**

The twins entered the Room of Requirements.

The girls were already there. "So, what did Dumbledore want this time?" asked Daphne.

"The trial of course," replied Harry.

"I assume he was not pleased that she was freed."

Lucy smiled coldly. "Yes, nor was he pleased that we refused to even ask the 'Lord of Shadows' to send Bella to him, for reeducation and interrogation; and for the greater good, of course."

"He also tried to convince us to that she is dangerous," said Harry.

"Yeah, for your enemies," said an amused Susan.

"Yeah, and he gave us again the I-am-disappointed-in-you look. As if it even works on us; or even on the other students who know occlumency."

"Anyway, it doesn't really matter," said Hannah. "More important... What about our summer plans?"

"We'll stay two weeks with our families. Then we stay with Harry for about two months. Then we go back home."

**-x-x-x-**

**Author Notes:** This was a bit shorter … only 3000 words. Next year, fourth year, the tri-wizard tournament (I will add a fourth task). I plan to have a little fun with the legend. It will be a prank…but it will also be an insidious object of psychological warfare.

Something about Ginny. I am not a great fan of Harry/Ginny. Normally I wouldn't put them together. The Ginny in canon is… just a fan-girl who gives Harry love potions from her mother.

My Ginny, however… is a little different. Her first contact with the twins was Lucy. She used to dream that she would be Harry's wife. But she also used to dream-think of Lucy as her sister-friend. My Harry and Lucy do have a strange allure. They were the firsts who treated her as something more than the little sister. And when they saved her from the diary, she became part of their inner circle.

In canon, Harry (maybe) could have had a Ginny as a pet as well… Or he could have paid for a shrink. But he ignored her. Ginny continued with her stalker-ish attitude. Coupled with what Riddle did to her, her mother's kid stories and the encouragements and love-potions she got from Molly… she became crazier than Bellatrix. (In my opinion.)

The horcrux. I will not use them as they were used in canon. I certainly do not plan to have a horcrux-hunt. I will give a detailed (my-)theory about what exactly is a horcrux and what alternatives exist… in fifth or sixth year probably. For now I will say that the horcrux (in my fanfic) is the worst way to ensure immortality. There are better ways. Riddle just didn't know any other and better ways…

Edited:November 25 2008

-voider-

**-x-x-x-  
**


	10. Sharing and Psychological Warfare

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 10.**

**Fourth year.**

**Sharing and Psychological Warfare.**

**-x-x-x-**

Harry and Lucy returned home alone. The other girls went to their own families for the next two weeks. In this time they would visit their families, other allies, potential allies and go to some social parties.

The twins were greeted by two of the vampires that acted as security guards; they informed them that they were expected in the library.

Bella entered the library, five minutes after the twins; she was wearing only a flimsy black dress. "Master, mistress, welcome home."

Harry smiled at Bella. "Thank you, Bella." He looked in her eyes and was satisfied. She looked much more stable.

Bella had become very attached to them on the winter holiday. She realized that her new masters were more than wordy of her service, loyalty and … more.

Harry watched as Bella approached them slowly, with a strange expression on her face. She stopped in front of the couch the twins were sitting in. She raised her arms to the dress and slowly let it drop to the ground. Harry watched her naked body and licked his lips unconsciously. He offered his hand to Bella, and when she accepted it, Harry drew her in his lap and kissed her gently. Lucy embraced her from behind, kissing her neck.

Bella shuddered at the twins' caresses. She groaned in frustration, wanting more, much more. "Please," she moaned.

**-x-x-x-**

Toward the end of July, the girls arrived at the twins' home. They were impressed by the castle and the security.

Later, they retired in the library. Narcissa, Bella, Alicia and Luciella joined them as well.

"Right, so are you going to explain everything to everyone, now that the inner circle is all here?" asked Daphne.

"Eh?" asked Lucy. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Come on," snorted Daphne. "We all know that you haven't told us everything." When Lucy said nothing, she continued. "We all know some things, some know more than others, but it is incomplete data and speculations. We are your inner circle. We need to know things, or we will be of limited use."

"Daphne," said Susan. "I agree that we need more information, but I'm not sure how safe it is. After all, a secret is a secret only as long as it is known by only one person."

"Yes, I know," said Daphne sighing. "I'm not saying that we need to know absolutely everything, but we need to know more. We are all master at mental defenses due to the intense practice we went through. We are secure in this matter; even if we are subjected to veritaserum or Dumbledore himself tries legilimency on us, we'll be able to hide the most critical things. And none of us would betray us."

"Yes, I agree with you," said Susan, "But I can't say there is no risk."

"Yeah, I know. There is a risk, but it's pretty small," said Daphne. "None of us has a reason for betrayal. We all gain from our… relation, one way or another. Narcissa has a great deal of power and happiness, something she didn't have as a Malfoy. Bella would never betray us, due to her situation. Alicia and Luciella have that vampire thing. Ginny is probably the most loyal. Susan and Hannah are very happy, since the only male they like is Harry and as part of our little … harem, they can be happy, won't become social pariahs and won't have to marry. Tracy and I won't have to marry some pureblood cretin-most likely a death-eater; as part of the group, we will have a great influence and the twins make us quite happy. Luna… Luna is Luna. And Su Li is has no reason to break our trust and with us, she gets the greatest chance for revenge."

"We agree," said Lucy. "You do need to know more about our plans." Lucy then begun to explain most of their plans and suspicions. She shared all but a few tidbits of information.

When Lucy finished, Daphne nodded thoughtfully. "I pretty much suspected almost all of this, but it's nice to hear the confirmation."

"Yes," said Lucy, "now that you know so much, you'll all need to know how to defend yourselves much better. We'll be training all summer. We will also perform some rituals of growth, since strong magic needs a strong enough body. Since we have a great deal of potion ingredients, many of them rare, we'll perform a great deal of rituals."

"Like what?"

"Nothing too Dark. Nothing that would change our personality and mind. Nothing that demands a big sacrifice. We'll perform rituals to make us immune or increase our resistance to mind-spells, poisons and control-potions. We'll also do some that makes us immune to most minor magical attacks and reduce the damage produced by most spells. We'll do other rituals for increased speed, strength, stamina, magical core expansion and a few more. You'll also get fully outfitted to battle-armor, weapons, and some backup wands."

"Something has changed; what is it?" asked Daphne. "Until now, what you did was mostly passive. You worked from the shadows. Now, you plan to become more aggressive."

"I knew you'll be the first one to realize it," said Harry smiling. "Ten days ago, we had a vision; Voldemort arrived in the country; he managed to make a body. Don't worry. It's only a very weak deformed and disgusting body for now, so we could destroy it easily. But in less than a year he'll manage to make a good body. I find it unlikely that he'll make himself vulnerable to attack before he's ready. We have to be prepared when the time comes. Until now it was useful to be underestimated, but now it is time to become not only respected, but also feared. The death eaters never had any serious opposition. We'll have to change that."

"So that's why you hired all those mercenaries, curse-breakers and hit-wizards."

"Yes, we plan to heavily ward all our allies. If they are attacked, they can retreat to Gryffindor Castle, where our little private army is stationed. Our troops there will counter-attack."

"What about those who are not allies?" asked Luna.

"We'll get all muggle-born portkeys to Gryffindor castle and do some basic wards on their homes, if they allow us."

"And the rest?"

"We'll try to help them as well, but the highest priority is our allies, then the muggle-born, then the neutrals, and only then the Light and Dark families."

"I thought you had the scar connection warded," said Daphne. "How can you receive a vision from Riddle, if the connection is warded?"

"Most of the scar connection was severed; the only parts that were kept are heavily warded. For now the connections is useful; if we have trouble, we can sever it easily enough. Voldemort regained part of his power, and his control is not so good. In his uncontrolled emotional state, he allowed information to pass through the scar."

"Can you stop the visions?" asked Alicia. "It didn't look pleasant."

"They won't be too much of a problem, now that we are aware of them," said Harry. "For information to pass through the curse scar, a big amount of power would be required. This would mean that our mental wards are down, he is very excited about something or he's expending energy to 'shout' over the fence. If it bothers us too much, we can ignore it. He can shout, but we don't have to listen. And in an extreme case we can easily sever it."

**-x-x-x-**

Harry awoke with only Lucy in bed. This was quite strange, since he usually woke up with at least two more girls in their bed. He tightened his embrace and kissed Lucy to consciousness.

Lucy was as surprised as he was to find they were alone. "They're probably planning our surprise party. It's our birthday after all."

"Yes, until they are ready… let's have some fun," said Harry. "It's been a while since we were only the two of us."

One hour later, they were collected by Alicia. They spend the day having fun and relaxing. At eight o'clock the twins were shepherded to their room. The room was filled with candles and rose petals. The strangest thing however, was that their already huge bed was even bigger, but empty. The twins shrugged mentally and went to the bathroom to prepare for bed. When they came back from the bathroom, they were surprised by what they saw. The 'inner circle' was on the giant bed, naked.

"Happy birthday, master, mistress." Alicia smiled at the desire in their eyes. "We're your present." Harry and Lucy grinned and jumped in the sea of flesh.

**-x-x-x-**

They finished their training in the third week of August. The twins and the girls made more social calls, strengthening their alliance and gathering a few more allies.

On August 25, they went to the Quidditch world cup. Lucy and the girls were happy that Harry was immune to the veela-charm of the Bulgarian cheerleaders.

That night, there was a commotion. Death eaters were playing with some muggles and were shooting spells left and right. The omnipresent vampire bodyguards took most of the group to a safe location. Harry, Lucy, Ginny, Su Li, Bella and four vampire bodyguards went to investigate.

"Most of them are death eaters," said Lucy. "Their auras practically scream 'the dark mark'."

"If that is so, we should show them the error of their ways," said Harry.

"Yes, but that one is mine," said Ginny pointing at a figure. "That's Lucius Malfoy; killing him is too small of a punishment. I'll make him suffer first."

"Very well, love," said Harry. "You're first."

They all knew how to do silent casting, so the first warning the death eaters heard, was Lucius scream as he was castrated. A fraction of a second later, four cutting curses came, killing four death eaters. Two seconds later, five cutting curses came towards the death eaters.

"Retreat!" screamed a death eater and promptly disappeared. His companions followed his example.

"Nine down," said Harry, looking at the death eater corpses. "Clean your wands of the last spells. We don't want to get in trouble with the aurors. Fudge wouldn't hesitate to throw us in Azkaban for killing death eaters."

**-x-x-x-**

On September first, the twins and the girls enlarged a compartment from the Hogwarts express, transfiguring it and making it more comfortable.

The Gryffindor trio, Hermione, Ron and Neville, opened the door, staring at the occupants. They knew that they were close, but what they saw stirred feelings of jealousy and indignation.

Harry had Luna in his arms, petting her. Lucy had Ginny. Between Harry and Lucy was Su Li, with her head on Harry's shoulder. On the other side of the compartment was Susan with Hannah's head in her lap, and next to Hannah was Tracy and Daphne.

Ron was glaring at Ginny and Hermione looked like she was going to explode in a tirade, but before they could say anything, Neville spoke up. "I've been thinking… Was the ministry lying? Or was it really true that you and Bellatrix broke the death eater revel? Did you kill those nine …" Neville pursed his lips, remembering the exact wording, "upstanding purebloods," he finished, sneering the two words.

"No comment," said Harry, smiling slightly. "But a bird told me that Lucius Malfoy was there as well. It looks that Draco will be his last and only son."

"I see. I talked to my grandma, we no longer have any bad feelings towards Bellatrix Black," said Neville softly. "However," he said in a cold voice, "Lestrange is another matter."

Harry nodded, "Of course, I can even lend you a book about… painful curses, if you are interested."

"I can't believe you, you admitted that you killed those people in cold blood, and you even offered to give Neville a Dark book about torture," shrieked Hermione.

"I told you Hermione," said Ron, "he's the next Dark Lord."

"Shut up Hermione," snarled Neville, "He didn't admit to anything, we were just making conversation. Let's go."

Before they could leave, Malfoy and his two goons, came in. "Well, well, the twins who killed."

"How is Lucius feeling," said Ginny sweetly. "I heard that he had a nasty injury."

Draco's eyes widened and he drew his wand. "You bitch, it was you." He prepared to launch a spell, only to be flung away, together with his goons, from a wave of raw power coming from Harry's empty hand.

The three Gryffindors were gaping at the casual display of power. They knew that Harry was powerful, especially physically, but not magically like this. Neville smiled in satisfaction at the three unconscious Slytherins. "Come on, let's go."

**-x-x-x-**

The first years were warned that history of magic with Bins was the most boring class. However on their first class, every desk had a small book with the title, 'The legend of the Queen, the Prince, the Princess and the nundu'. The first years opened the book in curiosity.

"I thought we were learning about goblin rebellions, not legends," said a first year.

"Indeed we will," said a ghostly figure. "I am professor Bins. Before we go into goblin rebellions, we will have a few lessons from the books on your desks."

The students nodded in confusion.

"It is said that every legend has a kernel of truth. It is up to you whether or not you will find any wisdom in our next few classes. It is said that a long time ago a demon tried to impregnate the Queen of a powerful kingdom. He wanted to use the children and conquer the world. He failed, for the Queen was saved by a Gray Lord. The result was two twin children, powerful children from the union of the Queen and the Gray Lord. They protected their realm from an evil Dark Lord, but one day, they were betrayed by the royal doctor and the court wizard, who was actually the Dark Lord's father. Because of them, the demon was victorious. However the victory was short lived, for the Prince and Princess had a friend-an angel. She made a curse, a great one. It is said that because of the curse, one day all of the heroes and villains of the legend would be reborn. Some say that the time is now; some say that The Gray Lord from the legend is actually the famous Lord of Shadows. It is up to you whether or not you find any truth in the legend."

The students had a expression of interest and excitement on their faces. The lesson proved to be quite interesting.

"For now, read the first three chapters. Your homework will be to find a likely real-live candidate for a character…."

After the class ended and the first years left, the ghost disappeared. Harry and Lucy appeared in the class.

'This was fun,' said Lucy. "The short-term gullibility charm was awesome."

'Yes, I can barely wait for the next class,' said Harry.

'I can barely wait to see Dumbledore's expression, when he learns what he was in a previous life.'

'Snape and Malfoy too.'

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy, Harry, Daphne and Tracy had their first defense against the dark lesson with Professor Moody.

Lucy had told the inner circle that Moody had the aura of a death eater. Moody was famous for hating death eaters. Something was wrong, and Dumbledore probably knew about it. They decided to be cautious, sit tight, listen and search for an advantage.

Moody's first class was about unforgivables. Harry was surprised that Dumbledore permitted it.

When Moody announced that he would use the Imperio on the students, the twins became suspicious. They decided that they would pretend that they could barely throw off the curse. They signaled to Daphne and Tracy to pretend that they were just as vulnerable as any other student.

Later, in the room of requirements, the inner circle was informed about Moody's class and what transpired.

"Moody is a death eater," said Susan. "He is obviously an enemy of ours, and an ally of Dumbledore or Riddle."

Daphne nodded thoughtfully. "Putting the twins under the Imperio was not for the sake of students or our benefit. He must have wanted to know if Harry or Lucy was vulnerable."

"Yes," said Lucy. "We pretended that we were almost under the control of the spell. He must believe that if he would have put more power into the spell, we would have broken."

"And he thinks that the rest of us are just as vulnerable as anyone," said Daphne.

"Someday, someone will try to use the Imperio one of us, not knowing that we are immune to it," said Luna.

"Probably as a method of assassination," said Su Li. "They will get a nasty surprise."

**-x-x-x-**

Next week, in the library, Hermione approached Harry and the girls. She begun spouting nonsense about house-elves rights and asked them to join SPEW.

The girls looked at her as if she grew another head.

"I have no intention to join… SPEW. After all I own a lot of house-elves," said Harry.

"But you freed Dobby!" exclaimed Hermione.

"Ah, I see you met Dobby. Yes, I freed him. But Malfoy drove him insane. A sane elf wants a family to serve."

"That's because they were never thought about freedom."

"Hermione, before spouting nonsense like this again, ask the house-elves about it."

**-x-x-x-**

Next week, the twins were summoned to Dumbledore's office.

The twins entered and watched the headmaster's face. He looked irritated.

This was their second meeting. In the first one, he tried to get information about the killings at the world cup. Granger and Weasley must have told Dumbledore. Malfoy probably told Snape, who told Dumbledore. He tried to guilt them into admitting their crimes. Dumbledore was most irate. He was accustomed to being able to easily manipulate people with the help of legilimency. He was not as subtle and efficient without magic to help him.

"Harry, Lucy, I believe you know why I called you here."

Harry and Lucy snorted mentally. Dumbledore was still trying to trick them and guilt them into confessing their secrets. 'He never learns.'

"Actually, I don't," said Harry.

"It is about this." Dumbledore handed him the book they used to prank the first-years on their history of magic lesson.

Harry flipped through the book. "This is very interesting."

"You do know what the first years think, don't you Harry?"

"Actually, I have no idea, headmaster."

"Mr. Potter, they believe that you and your friends are some sort of legendary heroes."

"Twins who lived, legendary heroes, it's not much of a difference."

"Perhaps Harry, but the students think that Lucius Malfoy was a shoe-cleaner in a previous life. They think that Severus was a traitor and poisoned his patients in a previous life. And they think that the minister was a corrupt, evil person in a former life."

"Well, it is not far from the truth. Malfoy and the other death eaters used to grovel and kiss Voldemort's hem. Snape is poisoning his students love for potions. And Fudge really is corrupt, incompetent and probably evil. You know, it is strangely fitting."

"What about me, Voldemort and the Lord of Shadows? The Lord of shadows is portrayed like some sort of demy-god, the opposite of the mysterious demon. Tom is portrayed as my son; and I am portrayed as a evil, manipulative man who turned his own son into a monster."

Harry smiled at the headmaster's hidden rage. "Well, Tom was really like a son to you. When I was in the chamber, he blamed you; he implied that he became what he was because of you. So in a way, you are his father and creator."

"That may be so Harry, but it is not pleasant for small children to look at me like I am some sort of monster."

Harry smiled gently and gazed in the distance. "I seem to remember that you once said that you dislike the adulation and reverence you are looked with. You said that you dislike the immediate trust people put in you. You said that even you make mistakes and because of their complete trust in you, those mistakes are sometimes very grave. You said that you sometimes wished for people to not trust you like that. You know that saying: Be careful what you wish for."

"Perhaps I dug my own hole here, Harry. But it's enough talk about it. More important is that you disturbed a class with a childish prank. A prank that some of the children are taking seriously. You must learn that your actions have consequences. Detention for…"

"Headmaster," interrupted Harry. "May I ask why are you so convinced that we were responsible?"

"Are you saying that you are not?" asked Dumbledore incredulously.

"Yes, we are not the ones responsible for the prank."

"Then who is?"

"I have no idea, sir."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?"

"Headmaster, you have no proof that we are connected to this," said Lucy.

"Professor Snape is quite sure about your guilt."

"Snape is not a fit judge. After all he encourages bullies and he is himself a bully. Even when there is clear proof that an upper-classmen abused a child, Snape does nothing. If it weren't for me and Lucy, the abuse would have continued to go rampant. Perhaps you did not notice, but since we came to Hogwarts, Madam Pomfrey has a third fewer injuries."

"Mr. Potter, It is not your duty to protect the children, It is the professors duty."

"Yes, and if they would do their duty, we wouldn't have to take care of it for them."

"Turning back to your punishment…"

"Headmaster, if you give me good proof that we are guilty, we will of course do as you say. Until then, we will not serve detention for something we did not do."

**-x-x-x-**

**Author Notes:**_ Thank you for the reviews…_

Next chapter, we'll see how Harry reacts about the try-wizard tournament. The conflict between Harry and Dumbledore widens.

Edited: November 28 2008

-voider-

**-x-x-x-**


	11. Politics and Trial

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 11.**

**Fourth Year.**

**Politics and Trial.**

**-x-x-x-**

On October 30, the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived. Their mode of transportation was quite impressive: a pirate ship and a flying carriage.

Lucy was checking out the new students. Her attention was captured by a beautiful girl from the French academy. "She's a veela. She's powerful."

Harry nodded. "Part of us is veela-like. We have never met one face to face before. We'll have to see how we interact with her."

"Yes, since amongst vampires our vampire instincts become more powerful, I'm curious to see how we will react to a veela presence."

**-x-x-x-**

The next day, Dumbledore was reading the three champions for the Tri-wizard Tournament. The champions were Cedric Diggory, a puff; Fleur Delacour-the veela; and Viktor Krum-the Bulgarian team seeker.

Before Dumbledore could say anything more, the goblet spit another name. "Harry Potter."

The students begun to murmur. The Slytherins looked torn between pride and envy. The claws looked curious. The puffs were furious for the loss of spot-light. And the griffindorks had one more proof that Harry was the next Dark Lord.

The goblet spit one more name. "Lucy Potter."

Harry and Lucy went to the champion room. They were followed by the tournament jury, Moody and Snape. Harry and Lucy told their peace: they did not enter in the tournament, though no one seemed to believe them, and they did not want to compete. But Moody said that they had to; it was a magically binding contract. What followed was a ten-minutes screaming match. There were three Hogwarts champions and only two champions from the other schools.

"Shut up," shouted Harry. "You have two choices. You can somehow end this tournament, or you can confound the goblet into choosing four more champions."

The professors started screaming again.

'Lucy, what do you think?' asked Harry on their mental connection.

'I think that Moody had something to do with this.'

'Yes, he seams quite interested in us. He really wants us to participate.'

'Dumbledore too. The question is why?'

'Moody's a death eater… I would suspect he has nefarious purposes.'

'Yes, the tournament kills many of its competitors. If we compete, he and any of his allies will have many good chances to kill us.'

'We could compete, but not try to win, only defend.'

'Yes, we could defend ourselves much more easily if we didn't try to win; if we only tried to survive.'

'But winning would be good for us. It would be a great political move if we won. It would be something that we did, without the help of our titles. Winning would make people look at us not only as the twins who lived, but as the … twins who won.'

'It would show that we are a power to be reckoned.'

'So, we participate and we win.'

'We will win.'

'What about Moody? He has some plans. Most likely, he works for Riddle.'

'I agree. We could jump him in a nice dark corner, interrogate and Obliviate him.'

'We could even learn where Riddle is. We might have a good chance of killing his corporeal body.'

'Yes, but what good would it do? We learned from his mind that he made more than one horcrux, but we don't know where they are. The information was too protected.'

'Yes, we may kill the body, but he would escape and come again next year… and he would know about us. Next time, he would not underestimate us if we killed him.'

'Even if we were able to kill him for good, I don't know if it would be a good idea. It would destroy the Dark side. The current balance would be broken. Most likely, Dumbledore would make villains of the Gray side and we would be reviled as the next Dark Lord. Dumbledore would ally himself to the ministry and the rest of the neutrals.'

'Yes it would be better to let the Dark and Light sides fight each other. We will protect our own. And when the time is right, we will strike hard. We will win.'

'So, what do we do about Moody?'

'Dumbledore has begun to notice that we are not his pawns. He must want to find a way to get us under control. He begins to understand that his manipulations do not affect us too much. He is getting annoyed. With just a little push, he will do something very stupid. Until now, he never tried to use force to break our mental barriers. Perhaps it is time to see what secrets that aged brain holds. We can use Moody to create a favorable situation in which he really tries to use legilimency on us. This may be our best chance to learn from the greatest wizard alive.'

'Agreed. Moody seems to be quite a drinker… You think?"

'Polyjuice?'

'Yes. I'm almost certain. After all, the readings of his aura seem to suggest it.

'And he is a death eater. No one will mind too much if we use him.'

'We must be careful. This is a delicate plan. We will need Narcissa here.'

'That is easily accomplished.'

After ten more minutes of 'deliberations', the professors decided to follow Harry's advice. They would confound the goblet into choosing four more champions.

"That is all. I am glad we reached a satisfying agreement," said Dumbledore.

The professors started to leave, but Harry interrupted. "Not so fast."

"What is it, my child?" asked Dumbledore.

"There is still something to discuss. Who put our names in the goblet?"

"Potter, we don't have time for your lies," sneered Snape.

Harry ignored him. "Someone put our names in the goblet. Someone who wants us harmed, killed. Someone in this room." Harry turned and stared at Moody. "Tell me, professor, death eater, what is it that you keep drinking? Is it Polyjuice potion?"

Moody's eye widened in surprise. He drew his wand, but it was too late. Before anyone registered Moody's action, Harry was already moving.

Harry plunged his katana in Moody's belly. He then put his other hand on Moody's forehead and stared deeply in his eyes, finding only flimsy barriers. Harry found out who the bleeding man was and what his mission was. "You failed, Crouch."

Crouch looked confused for a second. He still had his wand in his hand. "Avada ka…"

Harry was waiting for this. His hand jerked upwards, cleaving the man's body in half. Harry swished his sword to the right, cutting the head.

Everyone looked in horror at the body.

"You killed him."

"Yes I did, headmaster."

"You did not have to do it. You could have stunned him."

"Maybe, but I did not have my wand."

"Harry, you could have tried."

"Why should I? He was a fanatic, a death eater and he tried to kill me and my sister. No one will miss him. The real Moody is locked in his trunk."

"Harry, not only did you kill a man in cold blood, you also used legilimency to break in his mind. I'm sorry, but every action has a consequence." Dumbledore turned to Snape. "Severus, call the aurors. Then go and free Moody." Dumbledore turned to Harry. "Please give me your wands and weapons, Mr. Potter."

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"I said no. I'll wait for the aurors, but I will not surrender my wand."

Ten minutes later, five aurors entered the room. Behind them was Narcissa, Alicia and twelve bodyguards. Narcissa went to talk with the twins and the bodyguards surrounded them.

"What is this?" thundered Dumbledore. "Ms. Black, how did you get inhere? Please take your guards and leave. You may discuss with Mr. Potter later."

"Shut up, you old coot," snarled Narcissa. "We have every right to be here."

The aurors started asking questions. After an hour of interrogating Harry, Lucy, Cedric, Fleur, Krum, the professors and the real Moody…Dumbledore, an auror and Narcissa, started discussing.

Dumbledore looked disgruntled. He wanted Harry to be arrested immediately. The auror decided differently. Harry would stand trial for using legilimency and killing Crouch, but he was free to go for the moment.

A guard came and announced that their baggage was ready.

"What? Mr. Potter, you will not leave Hogwarts. I forbid it."

"Forbid it all you want, Dumbledore," sneered Narcissa, "But Lord Potter will be going home until the trial. And Lady Black and their friends will come as well."

"No, I for…"

"Shut up, Dumbledore," snarled Harry. "You have no right to stop us. I will remember this, headmaster; you just dug your own hole. I promise, you will not like what I say at the trial. After all, I know quite a few of your dirty secrets. I don't know what you think you are doing, trying to send me to Azkaban; but mark my words, you will regret this."

"Mr. Potter… I think we should have a talk."

"You may talk to Lord Potter…after the trial," said Narcissa.

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later, Harry, Lucy, Alicia, Narcissa, Bella, two hit-wizards and a squad of vampires were entering the ministry. The vampires were carefully selected, not for battle-prowess, but for their ability to use mental attacks.

Two aurors were expecting them; they escorted them to a chamber where Dumbledore was waiting.

"What is this?" asked Narcissa. "What are you doing here, Dumbledore? I made it clear that if you wish to talk to Lord Potter, You will have to wait until the trial finishes."

"Ah, Narcissa; I only wanted a few moments to talk to Harry," said Dumbledore in a grandfatherly voice.

"Very well, talk."

"In private, if you do not mind."

"Actually, I do mind."

Dumbledore looked disappointed at Narcissa's response. "Narcissa, surely you do not think that I would harm Harry?"

"I do not care. Talk or go away."

Dumbledore sighed. "Very well; Harry, you must tell me what you have in mind."

"I plan to go to my trial, headmaster."

"Harry, I am afraid that our last talk ended badly. I want to make sure that you will not say things that are better left unsaid."

"What will happen is of your own doing. Now is there anything else?"

"Very well. May I ask what you are planning to say?" asked Dumbledore.

"No. Why should I give you any warning? I don't want you do get any ideas."

"Harry, I must insist."

Narcissa smirked at Dumbledore's last words. "Insist all you like, but do it someplace else. If that is all, we have a trial to attend."

Dumbledore's aura seemed to fill the room. Power exploded outward, hitting hastily erected shields. Surprisingly, it did no harm, except banishing everyone but Dumbledore in the walls. Also, every person in the room, including Dumbledore was moving in slow motion.

Harry was staring at Dumbledore, who took the opportunity to use legilimency on Harry. At first he used subtlety, but Harry's mind was too well guarded. Then, he added brute force. In what seemed to be hours to the two combatants, but what only was a few seconds, the vampires launched their own mental attack on Dumbledore. Harry and Lucy attacked immediately. Dumbledore's mental shields broke under the onslaught. The vampires continued their assault on Dumbledore's mind, while the twins started downloading information.

After the twins sucked dry every information they could find, they retreated.

'Harry looked at Lucy and sighed. 'We could kill him right now,' he told her mentally.

'Maybe, but in his mind we found information about immortality. It seams that there are better ways than using a horcrux. If he has the information, he may have already used it. When we kill him, I want him to stay dead.'

'You're right. It would also give us legal and political problems.'

'And his fried turkey would know if he was in any real danger. He might come and save him before we did the deed, but in time to realize we were trying to kill him. It would be bad if he knew of our true intentions. For the moment we must behave as if we always believed in him until now, but we feel betrayed by his actions.'

'Yes.'

**-x-x-x-**

The trial started. Harry was put on a chair. The prosecutor, one toad-like woman - Dolores Umbridge and one of Fudge's closest sycophants, wanted Harry to be chained. Fortunately, madam Bones, one of their closest allies shot down the idea.

After the toad presented the evidence and statements, she began to question Harry.

"Mr. Potter," she begun.

"Lord Potter," interrupted Narcissa.

"Yes, Lord Potter. Did you use legilimency on the victim?"

"Victim?" asked Harry. "What victim?"

"I'm referring to Mr. Crouch."

"Oh, Crouch. The escaped death eater. Yes I did."

Umbridge grimaced. "And, did you kill him by… cutting his torso in two and then decapitating him?"

"Yes, I killed the death eater."

Umbridge did not question him further. After finishing the interrogation, she recommended that Harry Potter be sentenced to life in Azkaban.

Narcissa's turn came. After presenting her case and the evidence, she started questioning Harry. "Lord Potter, Why did you attack Mr. Crouch Jr.?"

"I believed that the reason for the participation in the tri-wizard tournament of my sister and me was an attempt on our life. Since Moody gave the same feeling that Snape and Quirrell gave, I suspected he was a death eater."

"Lord Potter. What do you mean by 'the same feeling', and what is the connection between the three men?"

"Well, Snape is a death eater, and Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort in my first year."

"Did you say possessed, Lord Potter?"

"Yes."

"And how do you know this, Lord Potter?"

"Objection," said Umbridge. "This has nothing to do with the case."

"Actually, I am quite interested. Continue," said madam Bones

"Dumbledore hid the philosopher stone at Hogwarts. Voldemort tried to steal it, and regain his body. Since the headmaster was not in the school and the professors did not believe that the stone was in danger, three students tried to protect the stone. I and my sister went to rescue them and we destroyed the stone. Before the possessed Quirrell tried to kill us, Voldemort revealed himself."

"I see. And professor Snape? How do you know he was a death eater?"

"He tried to use legilimency on me. I retaliated. I saw some of his memories. Amongst them was the memory of Snape telling Voldemort about a certain prophecy. It was about me and my sister, and Voldemort. This is why he went after my parents."

"So is this the only reason you attacked him? Because he was a death eater?"

"No. I realized that the false Moody was drinking something from his flask every hour. I suspected that it was Polyjuice. When I accused him of being a death eater and using Polyjuice, his occlumency barriers cracked a bit. He was shouting his thoughts so hard, that I picked his intent to murder us, by using only passive legilimency."

"And then, what happened?"

"He drew his wand. I realized he would try to kill us, so I stabbed him. I looked through his mind and found out some of Voldemort's plans. Amongst them, was that he wanted to use us in some sort of ritual of resurrection, and then murder us. After that, he tried to use the killing curse on us, so I killed him."

"Mr. Potter, Did you know that using legilimency is illegal?"

"Yes, But at least I used it in battle. The law states nothing about using legilimency in battle. Anyways, Dumbledore and Snape used it frequently on the Hogwarts students. If they can mind-rape students, then I can use it to protect my family."

**-x-x-x-**

Two days after the trial, the twins and the inner circle was discussing the result of the previous days.

"It seams that Fudge, Lucius and their cronies are attacking Dumbledore," said Narcissa. "Dumbledore lost a great deal of political capital thanks to the trial revelations and some well placed rumors. The ministry and death eater factions consider Dumbledore much more dangerous than us. While they attack each other, we gain strength. Most of Dumbledore's allies that are disgruntled with the Light side leadership are getting interested in us. Even a few Dark families that were loyal to Voldemort sent some feelers."

"Yes. Some people are beginning to see through Dumbledore's manipulations," said Susan. "They know that, instead of immediately calling the aurors to arrest Harry for killing a death eater, he could have easily used his influence to protect him."

"Fudge too, lost some points by trying to discredit us. He assured the public that Voldemort is truly gone and Harry was lying. He was none too pleased when Harry offered to be questioned under Veritaserum. He was even more pissed when Harry made an oath that everything he said at the trial was true."

Narcissa nodded, looking pleased. "On the political arena, we are doing quite well."

"What about Dumbledore?" asked Alicia.

"We may have a problem with him," said Harry. "He had a large portion of his mind so well protected that we were unable to get in. I don't know what was in there, but Lucy suspects that it is his true personality and his most secret memories and knowledge."

"So all the effort was for nothing?" asked Luciella.

"Quite the opposite," said Lucy. "We gathered a lot of magical knowledge from his mind. It will take us months to properly sort it. The most important thing we found out though is that a horcrux – what Voldemort used to ensure his immortality, is the worst way to become immortal."

"Oh?" questioned Luna.

"Yes, a soul is actually a type of … net. It connects, links and holds together the various parts that makes us who we are. When a horcrux is created, you tear pieces of the soul and put it in an object. This process is very damaging. The soul is anchored by the horcrux, and if you die, you can be resurrected. The only advantage (if you can call it that) to this process is that, if somehow the link to the horcrux is broken, the horcrux still has a piece of the soul. The horcrux can be used to create an independent entity. However, tearing your soul apart is very bad. The least consequence is insanity," finished Harry.

"So, is there a better way?" asked Daphne.

Lucy nodded. "Yes, there is. It seams that there are other ways to ensure immortality. There are ways to make certain you remain as a ghost or something similar after death. The most… Light way, is to somehow deepen the link to a familiar. If the link is strong enough, the familiar will ground you. It will act in a similar way to a horcrux. You can also link to an object of power. Upon death, you become a ghost or shade. There are rituals to give a body to a shade."

"Fawkes," said Daphne suddenly. "Since Fawkes is immortal, Dumbledore could use the familiar bond to become immortal."

Harry nodded. "We're almost certain."

"You know Harry," said Luna. "The twin bond is similar to a familiar bond, only much stronger."

**-x-x-x-**

When they went to school, the reactions were varied. The younger kids seamed to be on Harry's side. The twins and the inner circle were protecting them from bullying and helped them when they asked. The other students were a little wary, now that they knew Harry was perfectly capably of murder. Harry and Lucy being linked to Voldemort by a prophecy deepened the sentiments.

The first years especially, were sometimes muttering about how much Dumbledore resembled his counterpart from the book they received on their first history lesson.

Dumbledore tried to talk to Harry, but was rebuffed unceremoniously. Snape and Mcgonagal were not pleased by Harry's shear gall.

**-x-x-x-**

On November 13, support Cedric badges appeared. Malfoy was the first to show it to Harry. When the badge was touched, the text changed into "Potter stinks." Harry only raised an eyebrow at the text. Harry surreptitiously performed a rather simple charm.

"What did you do?" asked Daphne. At Harry's innocent expression, she continued, "I know you did something. Spill it."

"It's a rather simple charm. I made it so it spread to every badge. Instead of Potter stinks, the text will show a derogatory message about its owner. For example, Malfoy's will show 'My dad has no balls'."

"That's not all," stated Daphne, smiling slightly.

"Yes, I added one more thing. The only people that can see the changed text are those that do not have a badge."

**-x-x-x-**

At the weighing of wands ceremony, Harry and Lucy gave Rita an interview. Since Harry owned the Daily Prophet, Harry was reasonably sure that Rita will write something nice about them. Narcissa had also hired some investigators to gather information about various public and political figures. One of them was Rita. They found out that she was an illegal animagus. Because of that, Rita would not write anything that would annoy Harry.

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later, in the Room of Requirements, Daphne gave the twins the news she received from Narcissa. "Narcissa used her influence to find out what you'll encounter in the tournament. There will be four tasks. The first is that you have to take something from a dangerous magical creature. In the second task, you have to recover something from the lake in an hour. The third task is a duel competition. And the fourth and final task is that you must enter a maze and find the cup."

Harry nodded absentmindedly, and then frowned. "Shouldn't there be only three tasks?"

Daphne shrugged. "Yes, but it seams that they had to add another task if they wanted to add more competitors. Something about the confundus charm, but I don't really buy it."

"I agree," said Lucy. "It's more likely that Dumbledore wants to know how well we can fight."

**-x-x-x-**

**Author Notes:** Next time, the first task.

Now… is Dumbledore immortal? Maybe, maybe not. We won't know for quite a while.

I started a new fic : Harry Potter - the dark pixie… check it out.

**_Thank you all for reading and _reviewing.**

-voider-

Published: September 27 2008.

Edited: November 29 2008.

**-x-x-x-**


	12. Task and Change

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 12.**

**Fourth Year.**

**Task and Change.**

**-x-x-x-**

Finally, the time for the first task came.

Harry and Lucy entered the competitors' tent and saw Fleur in a corner. She looked nervous. When she saw the twins a few meters from her, she shuddered.

"Now now, my dear, there is no need to feel nervous," said Lucy.

Harry approached her and looked in her eyes. Her pupils were dilated and she begun to breathe faster. Harry felt her veela charm, similar to his own, but different and much, much stronger. It was starting to go out of control. The other male champions started to feel it. Harry grasped her shoulders and stared in her eyes. He pushed at her with his own magic, trying to calm her.

Fleur licked her lips and closed the distance between her and Harry. She shuddered again when she embraced him. Feeling her magic relax slightly, she gave Harry a peck on the cheek. Half a minute later, her magic was under control. "I'm sorry," she said, putting her head on Harry's shoulder. "I don't know what came over me. I was already nervous, but when you two came in, I just lost control."

Lucy put a comforting hand on her back, rubbing it in an attempt to relax her. "Don't worry. It was probably our aura that caused all this. We are particularly strong, and we spend a lot of time with vampires. I think they rubbed off on us. Because of that we have something similar to a diluted veela charm. This happens sometimes when we meet a new, stressed, young vampire."

"Oh. In any case, thank you for calming me," said Fleur. She gave no sign of wanting to break contact with the twins. She actually burrowed deeper in their embrace. "This feels so nice. I can't remember the last time I felt so peaceful."

None of the three champions paid any attention to the glares of the other two French champions, Cedric and the three Durmstrang champions.

Five minutes later, Bagman entered and explained the first task. Each one of the champions drew a small sculpture of a dragon, by lottery.

Harry and Lucy got a Hungarian Horntail. Fleur got a Common Welsh Green.

Harry was to be the last competitor. He sat in a chair, closed his eyes and relaxed. Lucy was the first competitor and Fleur was the second.

Harry smiled inwardly at the success of their plan. Lucy got the egg, and nobody even knew how she did it.

Fleur used her broom to steal the egg. The other competitors followed in her steps, with various results.

Finally, Harry's turn came. He heard the commentator's voice. "And ... Harry Potter, the twin of Lucy Potter! Let us see if he has the same plan as his sister. Ms. Potter succeeded in her task flawlessly, but nobody knows how. Perhaps if we pay close attention to Mr. Potter, we will find out."

Harry approached the dragon slowly. The dragon was nervous because of the noise of the crowd. His senses extended towards the dangerous creature. Harry observed something strange. The unbreakable chain that was supposed to keep the dragon from getting free wasn't unbreakable.

Harry drew his wand and cast a temporary muffling ward around the dragon, so it would not be angered by the sound of the crowd. Then, he pointed his wand towards the Forbidden Forest. Twenty seconds later, two flying cows were approaching at a great speed. Harry slowed them and moved them towards the dragon, who was eyeing them hungrily. As soon as the cows came in reach, the dragon started to feed.

Seeing that the dragon was no longer a danger, Harry relaxed slightly. He conjured a disillusioned snake and ordered it to get the egg. Then he disillusioned the golden egg. Thankfully, the dragon failed to notice anything strange.

The invisible snake slithered towards the egg. It wrapped itself around it and came back. Harry picked the egg from the snake and banished the creature. He disillusioned the egg and walked towards one of the dragon handlers.

It was Charley Weasley. "Harry mate, that was cool," he said.

"Thanks, Charley. Can I ask you why the unbreakable chain is not unbreakable?"

"What?"

"The chain keeping the dragon in place, it's just a normal chain."

Charley paled. "Are you sure?" At Harry's nod, the dragon handler looked as if he was about to faint.

He signaled to three of his colleagues and told them what Harry said.

"That's impossible," said one of them.

Another handler went towards the dragon and cast a spell at the chain. He came back and the dragon handlers had a silent conversation.

The four dragon handlers brought a new chain with them and chained the dragon with it.

Harry and Lucy got 40 points. So did Krum and Fleur. Cedric got 38 points. All of the other students completed the task as well, but they all had fewer than 35 points.

**-x-x-x-**

The next day, Fleur came to the library. She came to Harry's table and bit her lip.

"Hi Harry."

"Hi Fleur. Do you want to sit down?"

"I do not want to intrude. I heard that this is your private table and you rarely let other people sit with you."

"That's true, but you are not other people. Here, sit," said Lucy.

Fleur sat down between the twins and smiled sadly at the rest of the girls.

"You know me and Harry. This is Ginny. She's a third year Hufflepuff. Daphne and Tracy are fourth year Slytherins. Hannah and Susan - fourth year Hufflepuffs. Luna - third year Ravenclaw. And Su Li - fourth year, Ravenclaw." All of the girls smiled and nodded at the French girl, who looked surprised.

"Hey, why are you looking so surprised?" asked Lucy.

"Well, I am a veela," said Fleur as if it would explain everything.

"Yes, we know."

"How can I explain? Ever since the Change... veela mature from child to adult in less than a week. When that happens, our charm becomes active. Suddenly, in only a few weeks, males loose 50 IQ points around you. And the females hate you instantly. I had a lot of friends before the Change, mostly girls. After I matured, all of them became jealous and hated me. And the few boys I knew kept looking at me as if I was a piece of meat."

Lucy gave the veela a hug. "It's ok. We're not like that."

"I know. Usually when I sit with girls, it takes less than five seconds for them to start giving me cold glares and veiled insults. This is nice. But I don't understand how ... why?"

"Me and the girls like to share," whispered Lucy in Fleur's ear.

"Oh," said Fleur glancing at Harry.

"And we all have increased resistance to things like veela charm or vampire compulsion."

**-x-x-x-**

The next day, Fleur brought her little sister Gabrielle.

"Hello. Gaby wanted to meet you."

"Hi Gaby," said Lucy. She introduced the group to the young veela and told her to sit with them.

"Where?" asked Gaby in a strange voice.

"Wherever you want."

"Really?" asked Gaby smiling mischievously.

"Yes," replied Lucy, wondering about the smile.

"Thanks." Gaby jumped in Harry's lap, shocking all the girls except Fleur, who groaned in exasperation.

**-x-x-x-**

In the middle of December, the twins went to the lake for the second task. Narcissa had informed them that every competitor would have to rescue someone important. While this was not new information, because they opened the egg underwater and heard the riddle; she did get one very important thing. The prisoners would be dosed with the draft of living death.

They were all concerned that someone tried to kill Harry in the first task, so they thought that it might happen in the second task as well. As such, they thought they must be prepared for anything. Fleur was informed of the potential danger and they all decided to stick close to each other.

The nine competitors aligned on the edge of the lake.

When the signal to start the task came, Krum partially transfigured himself in a shark. The rest of the competitors cast bubble-head charms. Harry, Lucy and Fleur cast spells to keep the water from their clothes. Then they conjured three sea-serpents and cast a spell to enlarge them. The last spell they cast made them grow gills. They dove under the water and grabbed their mode of transportation - the snakes. Soon they saw one of the French competitors. She was attacked by grindylows. They helped the girl, who continued toward the village.

When they saw the underwater village, Lucy signaled the other two.

"What is it," asked Fleur.

"I don't know exactly, but there is something out there."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Perhaps, I do not like the look of that village. It is the perfect place for an ambush."

They waited a few minutes, scouting around. The other competitors had already rescued their prisoners.

"At least now we won't have others to get in our way," grumbled Lucy.

After conjuring three more sea-serpents for the prisoners, the three champions went towards the center of the village. They cut their prisoners free. Harry had Daphne, Lucy had Ginny and Fleur had Gabrielle. As soon as they got free, large explosions detonated in the village. The mermen went berserk and Harry had to put a shield around them to stop their aimless attacks.

Lucy gave the three prisoners the antidote to the draft of living death and put bubble-head charms on them. They all grabbed their sea serpents and sped towards the surface.

Just after they exited the village, a large numbers of grindylows started to attack them, but a few large area concussion spells discouraged them easily enough.

When they were half way to the surface, one meter spear-like fishes started to attack. They were so fast and agile that spells could barely hit them. The only thing that saved them was the twins' inhuman reflexes and their hastily erected shields.

"What the hell are these things?" asked Daphne.

"I don't know. But don't get hit. That nose, needle, spear or whatever it is, can probably cut us in half. And it might be poisoned too," said Lucy.

Just then, another wave of the spear-fish attacked. Four of them slammed in a shield and broke it. Two more took advantage of the fact and sped towards Gabrielle's unprotected back. Harry hissed a command and the sea-serpent rolled and took a sharp turn towards Harry. The first spear-fish slammed in Gabrielle's serpent, killing it. The second one locked on Gabrielle, but Harry managed to hit him. Harry sheathed his wand and grabbed Gabby. Suddenly, a spear-fish slammed in Harry's back. Lucy immediately sent a cutting hex, killing the fish, and then she reinforced the shield.

"Harry, are you okay?"

"Yes."

"I think it's poisonous," said Fleur. "It ki...paralyzed Gaby's serpent."

"I'm fine," said Harry. "I'm immune to most poisons."

"Shouldn't we pull out the spear?" asked Daphne.

"No. It will do more harm if we do that," replied Harry. "Just cut the fish from the spear."

Lucy sent a cutting hex, leaving only a five centimeter shaft.

"Now, these things annoy me too much. I'm done playing nice."

"Harry and Lucy began conjuring black serpents. After two minutes, there were a few dozens of them."

"Kill the spears," hissed Harry.

Immediately, the black serpents lunged at the surrounding spear-fish. The serpents were twice as large as the fish, faster and more agile.

They watched for a few minute as the serpents slaughtered the sword-fish. The task was made easier because the fish tried to attack the humans and mostly ignored the serpents.

Harry and the six girls surfaced the water, just before the one hour limit. The twins and Fleur dispelled their gills and the sea-serpents took them to the edge of the lake. Harry climbed out of the lake with Gaby still in his arms. The crowd gasped at the protruding spear and the blood.

Madam Pomfrey hurried to treat Harry, but was pushed aside by two of their own healers. "We'll take care of them."

Harry and the five girls were ushered in a tent prepared by Narcissa.

Harry sat on a hospital bed, Gaby still in his arms. Fleur came to take her and Gaby grudgingly let go of Harry.

"My Lord, you are in no danger," declared the healer who looked at the wound. "It did not hit any vital organs. If we pull it back, it'll only make more damage. We'll have to push it forward."

The spear was driven forward, and a healer healed the wounds. "There, you're all better. Tomorrow, it will be completely healed. Even the scars will be gone."

Alicia kneeled in front of Harry, revealing her neck. "There is no need to wait for tomorrow, master."

Harry nodded and smiled in gratitude, biting the vampire and dranking deeply. The infusion of blood healed him completely.

"You're a vampire." said Fleur in a wondering tone.

"We forgot you didn't know," said Lucy. "We are part vampire. Does that bother you?"

"No, not really." Gaby struggled in Fleur's grasp and was released. Immediately, she dashed in Harry's lap, snuggled and started purring.

Alicia looked carefully at the girl. "There's something wrong with her."

Fleur examined her from a distance and groaned. "The Change has begun. She is maturing. Since her veela side is so strong, she is maturing earlier than I did."

"But why now. And why is she behaving like that," asked Lucy.

"Since she has a life debt to Harry now, there is a link between them. She is binding herself to him. She is choosing her mate... The link is still new. It can be broken it if you wish, but the consequences for Gaby will be quite bad. I would ask you to let the bond continue. I know it is selfish of me, but..."

Lucy put a finger to her mouth, cutting her words. "Of course we will. We like Gaby a lot. We do not have a problem with her bonding. The only potential problem is not us, but her. Harry is not monogamous. As long as she can accept our relationships, there is no problem."

"I somehow doubt there'll be any problems with that," muttered Fleur.

"Good, then it's settled," said Lucy. "I have a question though, how long is she going to be grafted like that to Harry?"

"It's advisable they stay in close proximity until she matures. That means about seven days. It is advisable to spend most of the day by her side."

"Then, she'll have to sleep in our quarters," said Harry.

**-x-x-x-**

After Harry was healed, Narcissa went to give a statement to the public outside. It was decided that she would inform the reporters about the attack. She would not give any details, but she would hint about the possibility of an assassination attempt.

It was now clear that the mission of the fake One-Eye Moody to help Harry or Lucy to win the tournament and use the cup as a port-key was abandoned. Voldemort realized that the chances of getting the twins as an ingredient in his ritual of resurrection, was slim to none. Most likely, he decided to kill them and the tasks were the perfect way. In the first task someone removed the unbreakable charm on the chain that shackled Harry's dragon in the arena. And in the second task, someone tried to kill them again by using water creatures. The third task would most likely have another attempt; probably one of their fellow champions would try to 'accidentally' kill the twins in a duel.

After the crowd dispersed, their bodyguards escorted Harry and the girls, including Fleur and Gabrielle, to Harry's quarters. Lucy, Fleur and Harry - who was carrying Gaby, went to the twins' bedroom; the other girls, decided by unspoken agreement, that they would stay away for a while.

Harry put the sleeping young veela on the bed, smiling at her look of contentment.

Fleur stared at the bed for a few seconds. "I should probably go. Um, see you tomorrow."

Lucy's hand clamped on Fleur's arm. "You don't have to leave. You can stay ... with us."

The sudden contact made Fleur bit her lip in need and desire until she drew blood.

Lucy kissed Fleur, savoring her sweet taste. "You belong to us, with us. You know it. Gaby is not the only one who is binding herself.

"No. I have more control."

"Yes you do." Lucy licked her neck, making the veela groan. "With us, there is no need for control. Let it go."

**-x-x-x-**

Two days later, Harry left for dinner with Fleur. Lucy remained with Gaby, to keep her company. The young veela was asleep most of the time. She would wake up only for necessities, eat for five people, and then she fell asleep.

Harry and the inner circle sat down by Fleur, at the Ravenclaw table.

"Fleur!?"

Harry winced at the squeaky voice in disgust.

Fleur looked at the author of the voice with even more disgust. "Yes?"

"Hi... I ... I'm Ron Weasley. Do you... um ... want to um ... go to the ball with me?"

"No."

Ron looked crestfallen. He opened his mouth but was interrupted.

"Really Weasley, do you even have robes," Malfoy sneered.

Ron reddened in shame at the taunt.

"Do you really think you could have any chance, Weasley?"

"I don't see you doing any better, Malfoy."

"Is that so? Ms. Delacour, would you go to the Yule ball with me?"

Fleur looked at the Malfoy heir and shivered in disgust. "No."

"What?" Malfoy looked shocked at her expression. "Do you know who I am?"

"She told you no, Draco. Now, sod off."

"Stay out of this Potter. This is none of your business."

Harry sighed in exasperation. 'I humiliate Malfoy all the time. But he always comes back for more,' thought Harry. "Yes it is, Draco. Now, don't make me repeat myself."

"Malfoy, I already have a date," said Fleur.

"Who?"

Harry smirked at his fellow Slytherin. "Me."

"You? But aren't you going with Daphne?" whined Malfoy.

"It's none of your business; now, will you get out of my sight, or do I have to do something drastic?"

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later, Harry woke up hugging an unfamiliar girl.

The girl turned and smiled happily. "Master."

She looked like Fleur, only more beautiful, if that was possible. Where Fleur was tall, Gaby was petite, like Su Li. And her scent was intoxicating. "Gaby? ... you changed ... You look wonderful."

"Thank you master," she whispered breathily. "I am glad you like my new look."

Harry caressed her cheek, making Gaby shudder...

**-x-x-x-**

On December 25, Harry and the girls arrived at the door to the great hall.

Mcgonagal was at the door and looked surprised at the group.

Harry had Fleur on his right and Gaby on his left. Lucy and Ginny were hand in hand; the same with Daphne and Tracy, Susan and Hannah, Su Li and Luna.

"Mr. Potter, I see you dance partner is Ms. Delacour. But who is the other lady."

"Gabrielle Delacour." After the change, Gaby looked even more beautiful than Fleur.

"Ah, Ms. Delacour, I see you went through the Change. I was wondering why you disappeared after the second task. Unfortunately, you cannot enter. The same goes for Ms. Weasley and Ms. Lovegood. You must be at least fourth years."

"She is here as my partner," said Harry.

"Mr. Potter, you already have a partner."

"Gaby love, do you want to come with me to the Yule Ball?" asked Daphne.

"I would be honored."

'See? It's resolved," said Harry.

"Ms. Greengrass, she must be invited by a boy. I'm afraid they will have to find a date to enter. The same goes for you too, Ms. Potter; you will have to find a ... male partner as well. Most of them already have one. Perhaps Mr. Weasley..."

"No. There is no rule that says that I must go with a boy."

Mcgonagal grimaced. "You are right Ms. Potter, but you can't go with a girl as your dance partner. It is not proper."

"We do not care, professor," said Harry. "We will do as we please, like we always do." And Harry swept past the spluttering professor.

The students' eyes bulged at the procession of one boy and ten girls. Dumbledore especially, looked with disapproval at the twins.

Harry smirked at Malfoy and his date Pansy. Weasley was in a disgusting robe, dateless; he stopped glowering at Granger and Krum and started to glower at Harry for a few seconds. Then he started to stare at Fleur and Gaby, forgetting Granger.

Harry spent the whole night dancing with his girls, paying no mind to the glowers of the male population, and the jealousy of the female population.

**-x-x-x-**

Next day, the twins were called to Dumbledore's office.

"What do you want headmaster," asked Harry coldly, the moment he set foot in Dumbledore's office.

"Harry, my b..."

"Mr. Potter."

"Mr. Potter. I hoped you got past your grudge..."

"I didn't. You tried to put me in Azkaban. You tried to mind-rape me. I no longer consider you an ally."

"What can I say? I did not intent to put you in Azkaban."

"Yes, you did. I am not stupid. You did not want Narcissa to be present when you called the aurors. You tried to evict her, knowing that she was trying to protect me."

"I am sorry. I can only hope that you will forgive me one day. I make mistakes, just like anyone else. You must believe me. I only have your best interests at heart," said Dumbledore in a grandfatherly tone and sparkling eyes.

"What do you want, headmaster?"

"I am worried about you; more precisely I am worried about Ms. Potter. Last night, you both came to the ball accompanied by a girl. You are only forth years, but you stand to inherit a great deal. You both have the responsibility of producing an heir. I am sure you - Mr. Potter have some candidates among your many female friends, but your sister lacks any male friends. I can introduce you to some very good boys, from good families. It would be a good..."

"Headmaster, are you matchmaking?" asked Lucy in a cold voice.

"You could call it that, Ms Potter."

"My lack of male friends is none of your business. We will produce an heir without your meddling. Good day, headmaster."

'What is he thinking?' Lucy asked Harry a few minutes later.

'An heir.'

'An heir that would inherit our vast fortune.'

'If we kill Voldemort and die in battle, Dumbledore could try to use his influence and gain control of our heir ... if we had one.'

'He would mold and use it, like he tried to do with us.'

'One day,'

'Dumbledore,'

'Voldemort,'

'And all our enemies,'

'Will die,'

'By our hand;'

"One day..."

**-x-x-x-**

**Author Notes**: First of all... I know Fleur has a French accent... but me and the French language aren't good friends. So, by author decree... I decided that Fleur can somehow speak accent-less English.

A little explanation about the duration of memory integration... since there was a question about it. In chapter one, they only sucked the "vampire instincts" witch are not too many... so it didn't take too long. From Dumbledore (and Voldemort) they took a lot of spells and whatnot... so it took longer.

Why does Lucy not control people (the way she did in the prologue with Ms. Figg)? Because it is easy to control a squib... a wizard however, it might be quite a bit harder. The control might be broken somehow. Obliviators and Legilimans can control people too... and you can also use an Imperio (and it's easier). The twins are not evil... just have a ... Nietzsche-an philosophy. They could easily use Imperio on enemies... or even on innocents in some few special cases... but only on a good reason.

Next chapter... the third task ... there will be some dueling. One might wonder what will happen in an duel between the twins... I can only say that there will be a bit of high-level transfiguration... and I will do it in the most amusing way possible. Voldemort and the DE will not be pleased.

How was this chapter? I ... kind of feel conflicted about it...

_Like always, reviews are much appreciated._

Published: October 06 2008

-voider-


	13. Games and Resurrection

-x-x-x-

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 13.**

**Fourth Year.**

**Games and Resurrection.**

**-x-x-x-**

In the middle of January, Harry had a vision. He called the inner circle, which now included Fleur and Gaby, in the Room of Requirements.

"Last night we had a vision. As you know, we have a mental link with Voldemort. It seams that its power increased." Harry paused at the look of worry on the girls' faces.

Lucy smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry. We are still in control of the link. Even if the link is a little stronger, we can still snap it quite easy."

"Yes. So stop worrying about Voldemort trying to use the link. Since our mind is so heavily shielded, the only way for him to use the link is by pouring a lot of power in a mind attack. If he tries it, he won't be pleased by the results."

"Anyway, there is another reason for the meeting. It's about the reason behind the strengthening of the link. It happened because Voldemort gained a true body and his full power was restored."

The girls did not like the news.

"Don't look like that," said Lucy. "We knew that the day of Voldemort's return was close."

"Yeah, we know," said Daphne. "I just hoped it wouldn't be so soon. So, what happened?"

"Voldemort used a ritual; he regained a true body. As you know, he had a plan to use me or Harry for the ritual. However, that plan was scrapped. After he ... resurrected, he called his death eaters. Snape was there, Malfoy too. There were many other purebloods. Some of them wanted ... or demanded to announce it with a revel."

Daphne looked slightly amused. "And how did Voldemort react?"

Lucy snorted. "How do you think? Crucio." Voldemort was not in a good mood. There is something else," she said, her eyes darkening. "It seams that the one that helped Voldemort in his resurrection was Peter Pettigrew."

"What? I thought he died."

"So did we. It is thought that Peter and Sirius died the night my parents died. Bella told us that it was Peter that betrayed our parents. We thought he died that night. Apparently, he didn't. Anyway, Voldemort seems to want to use the silent approach."

"Silent approach?"

"Yes. Apparently, they will gather allies and resources until they're ready. Lucius received instructions. He is to do everything in his power to weaken the auror corps and anyone that would oppose Voldemort."

"What about Fudge?" asked Susan.

"Lucius seems confident that he's capable of manipulating the minister for their own gains."

Daphne nodded thoughtfully. "It's a good plan. He'll work from the shadows, just like we do. What are we going to do?"

"We'll inform our allies. Thanks to our forethought, our allies are all safe. Their homes and businesses are all heavily warded. If someone attacks them, we can dispatch our forces in less than five minutes. We have our own hospitals, safe houses and bases of operation."

"What about the others?"

"We don't really care about Dumbledore's people. We will not expend too many resources to protect them. The same thing goes for the other political factions. If they want to be protected, they must come to our side. If we protect them without getting anything in return, they'll just be parasites. The muggle-born and half-bloods are another matter altogether. Susan, Hannah, this is your job at Hogwarts." At the girls nod, Lucy continued. "You will talk to the students. Tell them that the death eaters are starting to go active. Give them hints about Voldemort. Tell them that we are willing to give them some basic wards at a great discount. Offer them free port-keys to safe locations. I doubt that the ministry or Dumbledore will do much against Voldemort. They were pathetic in the last war. When Voldemort goes active, I want the Wizarding world to look at us for help."

"Are we going to keep quiet?" asked Daphne.

"For now, partially yes."

"Perhaps we should pretend we have a spy in their ranks," said Luna. "It will make Voldemort a little paranoid."

"How would that help?"

"This mental link can be very useful. As long as we keep it hidden, we have a great advantage. However, we should be careful. He may become aware of it and draw us into a trap. We must take these visions with a grain of salt. There is another advantage. If the enemy believes he has spies within their ranks, it will give us an advantage, one way or another."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that it will preoccupy our enemy. It will make them not trust each other. Even an evil organization like the death eaters has a certain measure of trust. The lack of trust will create discord. Voldemort thinks of himself as a powerful Legilimence. Let him mind-rape his followers. When he discovers that none of them is the spy, what will he do? He will suspect his most trusted followers, for they are the ones that are the best ones at occlumency."

"Luna, sometimes you scare me," said Harry.

"Thank you Harry. There is another point. From what you know, Voldemort is really insane. This will make him even more paranoid towards his followers. If we are lucky, some of them may defect from his side."

**-x-x-x-**

Weeks passed, nothing was heard about Voldemort. Dumbledore and Fudge were informed by Narcissa, that the Dark Lord resurrected. Fudge only scoffed at the information; after all, his ... friend Lucius said its all lies. Dumbledore on the other hand, tried to deny it at first. When she informed him that she knew Snape was at their first meeting, Dumbledore seeing he was found out, admitted it. He also tried to get the name of the spy. In the end, Dumbledore refused to do anything about the death eater threat.

**-x-x-x-**

Finally, the day of the third task - the duel came. The duel would be a duel by elimination. Since there were nine competitors, the first eight would duel, resulting in four winners. The ninth would fight one of the four winners for his place.

**-x-x-x-**

"First match. Harry Potter from Hogwarts versus Herman from Durmstrang," said the referee.

Harry walked calmly on the platform. On the other side, the Durmstrang boy looked confident, too confident perhaps.

"Begin," shouted the referee.

Herman smirked at Harry. "Stupefy!" he shouted.

Harry moved only slightly and the jet of light missed him. 'What a moron,' he thought. 'He should know not to shout his spells. His aim is atrocious. And what the hell is he waiting for? Is he waiting for me?' Harry gave a mental shrug and with a small flick, he drew his wand and shot a stupefy spell at his opponent."

"Protego." The spell impacted the shield, but it resisted. "Petrificut Totalus."

Harry moved out of the way of the spell, and then he shot a bone-braking curse at his opponent.

Herman recognized the spell and his eyes widened in fear. "Protego."

Even before the spell made contact, Harry shoot two more spells in quick succession. The bone-breaking curse hit the shield, and it almost collapsed. The second spell destroyed the shield and the third almost hit, but the Durmstrang student threw himself to the right.

As soon as his opponent dove out of the way, Harry launched two more stunners. Herman managed to dodge one of them, but he was hit by the second and fell unconscious.

The whole fight was finished in less than twenty seconds.

"Winner, Harry Potter," shouted the referee.

**-x-x-x-**

"Second match. Delacour from Beauxbatons versus Montague from Beauxbatons," screamed the referee.

Harry gave Fleur a smile of encouragement as they walked past each other. He came next to Lucy. 'Look at the Montague girl.'

'She hates Fleur,' nodded Lucy.

'Hates her? That's an understatement. If I didn't know Fleur was capable of protecting herself, I wouldn't let her fight.'

'Don't worry, after a few months of constant training with our group, I doubt there's a competitor that can beat her. Anyway, don't worry yourself. From what I saw on Fleur's face, this is going to be short.'

"Begin."

Just as Lucy predicted, Fleur started firing low-level, nonverbal spells at a high rate, while approaching her opponent.

The only thing Montague could do was shield and dodge. She only had time to fire a few spells that were not aimed properly. One of the spells - a tripping hex, hit her. Two seconds later, a stunner hit her.

'Well, that was easy.'

'Yeah, and that stunner was the most advanced spell she fired.'

"Winner, Ms. Delacour," shouted the referee.

**-x-x-x-**

"Third match. Lucy Potter from Hogwarts versus Digory from Hogwarts," anounced the referee.

Lucy and Cedric faced each other.

She tried to keep the dislike off her face. After the Yule Ball, Cedric tried to 'befriend' her. Most likely, it was a command from Dumbledore. The puff tried everything, from sucking-up to bad-mouthing Harry and the girls.

"Begin," shouted the referee.

"Lucy," said Cedric with a fake, warm smile.

'Idiot, does he think I'm Chang or one of his vapid conquests? I controlled myself until now. But now, I think I'll have a bit of ... fun.'

'Getting a little bloodthirsty, aren't we?' asked an amused Harry on their private mental link.

"Digory." Lucy drew her sword slowly, with a feral smile. She couldn't help herself but shiver in anticipation.

"Lucy?" squeaked Digory, as he watched the girl advance with only a sword in her left hand. He couldn't help himself; He shivered; he heard the stories - that Lucy, Harry and the rest of their group are natural killers and capable of killing while smiling. He always scoffed at them, but now... "Stupefy. Petrificus Totalus."

Lucy used her sword to deflect the two spells and her smile widened.

"Redu..." just as Cedric was about to shout the spell, Lucy rushed him.

She slapped his wand hand aside, drove her knee in his stomach, and then an uppercut on his jaw, making him fly in the air. As soon as he became airborne, she caught his right foot, stopped his movement and threw him to her left. 'Well, this was fun.'

"Winner, Lucy Potter," shouted the referee.

Healers came to collect Cedric's body. He would spend at least a few days under their ministration. Lucy walked towards Harry. Krum and the last Beauxbatons girl climbed on the arena.

"Begin," shouted the referee.

"I see you had fun."

"Oh yes, Fleur. You don't know how long I've waited to do that."

After that, they watched in silence as Krum made short work of his opponent. "Winner, Krum," shouted the referee.

"So, we're done with the first stage."

"Not quite yet, Fleur. We still have the ninth one. He'll fight Krum or one of us for our place."

**-x-x-x-**

"Last match of this stage; Delacour from Beauxbatons versus Grigorov from Durmstrang."

Fleur went to her spot and prepared herself. The first minutes of the duel were balanced. Grigorov was quite good. Both he and Fleur fired only basic spells, neither scoring on the other. But suddenly, his stance shifted. He started to fire powerful spells; and they were not just any spells, but bone-breaking, cutting and exploding spells. They were borderline illegal; he fired them in one of Fleur's moments of weakness.

'He's trying to kill her.' Harry ran to Fleur and deflected a spell that was about to injure her, if not outright kill her. As Fleur's second, Harry could interfere and stop the match. Fleur of course, lost the match due to his interference.

"This guy is different. He was trying to kill you."

"I know," she said. "If you didn't stop the match..."

"Winner - Grigorov," shouted the referee.

"Yeah..." Harry gathered Fleur in his arms and took her to their healer.

**-x-x-x-**

"Lucy Potter from Hogwarts versus Krum from Durmstrang. Begin," shouted the referee.

Immediately after the start, Lucy started firing spells specially designed to destroy walls while evading Krum's spells. Krum got out of their path easily enough, since Lucy didn't even try to hit him. The area around Krum was filled with boulders.

Lucy begun to wave her wand and the boulders transfigured themselves in spiders and scorpions. Dozens of ten centimeters insects attacked Krum. He started to run backwards, destroying a transfigured insect at a time, while shielding himself from Lucy. One of the scorpions managed to close the distance and bit him. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lucy managed to stun him.

"Winner - Lucy Potter," shouted the referee.

**-x-x-x-**

"Harry Potter from Hogwarts versus Grigorov from Durmstrang."

'This guy is very skilled,' thought Harry.

'Yes, he's not a normal student. And he tried to kill Fleur.'

'And now, he'll probably try to kill me. It's possible that he's the method of assassination for the third task.'

'Harry, if you kill him, you'll...'

'What? Be disqualified? Yes, but only from the duel tournament. If we didn't have that little ... drama to perform for our match, I wouldn't give it much thought. However you are right. I won't kill him, but I'll cripple his body.'

"Begin," shouted the referee.

Grigorov didn't even hesitate. He started firing powerful and potentially lethal spells.

Harry retaliated in kind, while dodging and deflecting spells with his sword. The distance between the two gradually shortened. When Harry saw a lull in the battle, he fired a bone-breaker at his shield and an explosive hex at his feet, driving him backwards and unbalancing him. Harry rushed Grigorov, throwing his sword at the Durmstrang champion.

Grigorov turned his torso, barely escaping the sword.

Harry reached striking range and threw a powerful kick on his left side. The already unbalanced Grigorov could not manage to dodge it and was launched backwards in a spin. It was due to the dodge and the kick, Grigorov's body rotated in the air, his back towards Harry.

Harry smiled inwardly. 'I got him where I wanted.' He launched a bone-breaking curse. It hit on Grigorov's back, just under his neck. 'That's spinal damage. It will take months to heal it; that is, if he ever heals.'

Grigorov crashed down, unmoving.

"Winner - Harry Potter."

**-x-x-x-**

Harry and Lucy stepped on the dueling platform. Until that moment, they had not paid any attention to the public. Many were waiting to see the famous ... or infamous twins-who-lived, fight each other. There were many speculations about their skill; however, no one ever saw them in a duel with a strong opponent. It was clear that they were very strong, judging from their previous duels. Many hoped that Harry and Lucy would go all out.

Everybody was curious. Rumor was that they were trained by the mysterious 'Lord of Shadows,' who was the leader of a small, newly-found group. Apparently it had made its presence only a year before. Though the leader - the Gray Lord, as some call him, is never seen in public, his proxy is well known. Narcissa Black formerly Malfoy is the public face of the group. It is known that some Light, Dark and unaligned families formed an alliance with them. Some have declared their public support, but some have secret understandings with them; and others are still waiting to declare their support.

It was also well known that the twins-who-lived were the Gray Lord's heirs. It was apparent that despite their youth, the two children had an enormous influence among the Gray faction. Since the leader was so secretive that any scrap of information about him was worth sacks of galleons, one of the best ways to learn anything about him was to pay close attention to the only people who had any contact with him. Those people were Harry, Lucy and Narcissa.

Another motive for the attention was that since the Potters were rumored to be trained by the Gray Lord, their performance could reveal something about his skill. There were many that wanted to assassinate him. However, nobody knew his location. Also, they had no idea how powerful he was. Some said that he was as strong as Dumbledore and Voldemort. If that was true, no sane assassin would take the job.

"Final match - Lucy Potter from Hogwarts versus Harry Potter from Hogwarts. Begin."

Both Harry and Lucy started to fire spells; however they did not fire at each other. They fired in the middle of the stage. It was the same spell Lucy used in her duel with Krum. Boulders upon boulders started to appear. After a few minutes, they stopped.

'Are we sure about this? Aren't we showing too much?' asked Harry.

'It's not that bad.'

'Not that bad? Malfoy will try to throw us in Azkaban for slander.'

'It is slander only if he proves it is slander. If he puts us on trial ...'

'Yeah, I know. He has no chance in court. He won't risk being put under veritaserum. I'm just worried that we'll make them go against us too soon.'

'It was already going to happen. The only thing we "reveal" is that we have a spy in his ranks and we aren't afraid of him. In any case, sooner or later he'll attack us or our allies. When that time comes, he'll begin to understand. It's almost certain that one of the first attacks will be against one of our allies. When that happens, he'll know we're a force to be reckoned. Hiding ourselves too much will not give us too many advantages.'

'Yeah, it's better if he thinks that we are a minor threat. He'll think of us as a threat, but the smaller one. He will concentrate on others.'

'That is until we begin to retaliate.'

'Yes. When we do, he'll start to see us as the greater threat.

They started to move their wands. Some of the boulders combined. Two black-cloaked figures with white masks rose in the air. Two more figures rose and two more. This repeated until there were twenty figures. Then, three more figures rose. They were not masked. A throne was formed in front of the cloaked group and finally, the last figure rose in the air. It was bald with red eyes, slits instead of a nose and a pale face.

With another wave of the wands, the dueling platform repaired itself.

Voldemort sat on the throne. "Well, well," hissed Voldemort's amplified voice. "I see that not all of my followers arrived. For years I have remained a wraith, but none of you came to me. My trusted followers... It was not one of my inner circle that participated in my rebirth ritual, but the rat."

One of the unmasked - Pettigrew kneeled and crawled to Voldemort's feet, and kissed the hem of his robe. "Thank you, master."

"Oh, shut up, you sniveling rat."

The rat shook in fright. "Yes, master."

"Crucio." The people in the stands expected the evil red light, but it did not come. After all, the Voldemort thing was only a transfigured object. It could not fire spells. This however did not stop the rat from collapsing. People begun to realize that what they saw was not real and calmed.

Voldemort kicked the rat away from him. "He may be a sniveling coward, but at least he knows how to show proper respect. Doesn't he, Lucius?"

"Yes my Lord." Lucius approached the figure, kneeled and kissed his hem.

"Crucio." Voldemort watched Lucius for a few seconds. "Lucius? What do we say?"

"Thank you, my Lord." And he crawled back to the other death eaters.

Starting with Snape, all the other death eaters followed Malfoy's example. They all got a crucio after Voldemort acknowledged their presence by saying their name. All of them replied to the torture with a "Thank you, my Lord."

After the groveling ended, one of the masked death eaters spoke. "My Lord, are we going to have a revel?"

"Macnair. You presume too much. Crucio."

"There won't be any revels for the foreseeable future. My forces are not yet strong enough. We will gather our forces and recruit. Until the time is right, I do not want it known that I came back. Lucius, I have a mission for you. You will take care of Fudge. I want you to use your influence with the minister. Use your influence and money. Fudge is too corrupt and stupid. I want the aurors and ministry as weak as possible. Do the same thing to anyone that might oppose us."

"Yes, my Lord. I will not fail you."

"You better not. Or else the pain you felt when you were castrated will be nothing beside what I'm going to do."

"Yes, master."

"Now, be gone."

The death eaters bowed and Snape gave Lucius a vial, while Lucius gave Snape a small bag. All but Voldemort, Snape and Lucius started to loose form.

"Malfoy, Snape; what are you two doing? What is in that vial?"

"It's a high-quality calming potion, my Lord. It helps with the effects of the Crucio curse."

"Ah, I see. And what did Malfoy give you?"

"Ah, some money... for the potion."

"I see. I suppose you do this for the others?"

"Y-yes, my Lord."

"Excellent. From now on, half your income will come to me since I am somewhat strapped for money. After all if I didn't use the Crucio, you would not sell your potions."

"Yes, my Lord."

The last three figures collapsed, making a total of twenty-five piles of boulders.

"Are you not going to fight?" asked the referee.

"No. It's a draw," replied both Harry and Lucy.

"I see, very well," said the referee. "The winners of the third task are Harry Potter and Lucy Potter by draw," he announced.

The twins nodded and left the speechless Quidditch pitch.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author notes:** Wow, I got a lot of reviews, Thank you all.

Longest time between updates... I don't know how fast I will be updating from now on. Probably, it will be 1 or 2 updates per month.

Next chapter, we will see the consequences of the ... little drama, and the fourth and final task. It will (most likely) be the last chapter in the fourth year.

_Like always, reviews are much appreciated._

Published: October 25 2008.

-voider-


	14. Revelations and Freedom

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 14.**

**Fourth Year.**

**Revelations and Freedom.**

**-x-x-x-**

Narcissa Black smiled at the vultures ... or reporters as they liked to call themselves. She raised her hand to quiet them. Rita Skeeter was the closest to her and she looked like she wanted to peck her eyes out. Narcissa was glad she was able to take control of the Daily Prophet. Now, the blasted bug would serve their purposes. She shuddered to think what would have happened if Harry did not have the support he now enjoys. Fudge would have ordered a smear campaign and Harry would have become a black sheep. Of course, this did not stop Fudge from doing exactly that. Fortunately, he was not very successful, and now she would drive another nail in the Minister's coffin.

"Lady Black, what can you tell us about the duel between the twins-who-lived?" asked one of them. "Was it only a prank?"

"It was not a prank," replied Narcissa.

"So, does that mean that you-know-who is back?"

"That is unknown. However, we have received information that seems to point that way. It seams that someone that calls himself Voldemort has begun to rally the pureblood extremists."

"Are you saying that someone is impersonating you-know-who?"

"I did not say that, but it is a possibility, though I consider it faint. Three years ago his shade possessed a Hogwarts teacher and tried to steal a valuable artifact that hidden by Dumbledore. Fortunately, he was stopped and fled after his defeat. That seems to point that he is not as dead as we hoped. It seams that he somehow gained a corporeal body or he possessed someone again. Which one it is, I am unsure. I am however certain of other facts. First is that the death eaters are becoming active again and were summoned by him. Second is that the Dark Mark that all death eater's have is active again. When he died, the Dark Mark faded, but now it is completely restored."

"How do you know that Lady Black?"

"We have spies in their ranks."

"Does that mean that what was shown in the Potter twins demonstration really happened? Was there a spy in that meeting?"

"Yes, that is correct. I can not reveal the identity of the spy, but he was present at the meeting. That is how we found out about it."

Skeeter's eyes begun to shine. "Does that mean he is among the two dozen names that were spoken in the twins duel?"

"Yes."

"And those names are the names of death eaters?"

"Yes, that is correct miss Skeeter."

"Are the Potter twins not worried?"

"What do you mean?" asked Narcissa.

"I mean are they not afraid of any legal consequences if one of those people that were named decides to press charges?" asked Skeeter.

"Of course not. All those named are death eaters. If they want to go on trial, they are more than welcomed to."

"So you are not worried of any possible slander accusations?"

"Of course not. They are cowards. They will not risk a thorough investigation under Veritaserum. This means they can't legally do anything."

"Does that mean you are certain of their guilt?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, We can not legally do anything about it. Most of them - like Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape were judged not guilty and set free, so there's not much that can be done. The others ...the Minister is certain of their innocence and has forbidden any action to be taken against these ... upstanding pillars of the community."

"So the Minister is aware of these facts?"

"Of course," replied Narcissa. "I personally informed him a week ago. He of course, did not listen. He is certain that his friend and most loyal political ally and greatest campaign contributor - Lucius Malfoy is trustworthy."

"What about Dumbledore?"

"What about him?" Narcissa asked.

"Did you inform him of this situation?"

"No."

"Why?" shouted a reporter.

"Why should I. After all He did not inform me, and he must have been informed by Snape before I received my reports. Snape, who was at that gathering, is a death eater and he was not sent to Azkaban because Dumbledore said on his trial that he was a spy for the Light side."

"If that is true Lady Black, are you not endangering his position? Won't he be killed by you-know-who?"

"Unfortunately no. Snape is a vile, spiteful double agent. But, he gives information to both Dumbledore and Voldemort and they all know it. Voldemort has no reason to kill Snape. After all he is doing his job. Also, Snape is a valuable asset as a potion master. In the war, Snape helped hurt and kill many aurors and innocents with his art."

-x-x-x-

The same day Narcissa had her press conference, the twins were invited to Dumbledore's office after dinner. Ginny and Su Li entered behind them.

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Potter, I believe I only invited the two of you," sighed Dumbledore in a disappointed grandfatherly voice. The newcomers were of course immune to the subtle manipulation. Their mental shields were too strong. Since most of the students also had rudimentary knowledge of occlumency, they too were immune, or at least resistant. Dumbledore always used legilimency to manipulate the people around him. He did it for so long that it was now instinctual. A few years earlier, he could inspire or shame anyone with just a look. The situation was now completely different. Not only were the students good at mental defenses, they were also wary of him, especially the younger kids who found Dumbledore surprisingly similar to the evil court wizard from the Legend of the queen, the prince, the princess and the nundu who did unspeakable things to little children.

"What do you want headmaster?" asked Harry.

"I wanted to talk about Narcissa's statement. I assume you were informed?"

"Of course. We knew what she would do even from before the third task."

"It was not a wise thing to do."

"Wise or not, it was an order from the Gray Lord and we agree completely with what she said.

"I see. May I ask why you did not tell me about Voldemort's resurrection?" asked Dumbledore.

"We had no reason to do so. We are no longer allies. Our trust in you was destroyed by your actions. You tried to send us to Azkaban."

"I only did what I thought was right. You killed a man."

"Stuff it Dumbledore," sneered Lucy. "You were obviously trying to get us in trouble for some reason. You also tried to interfere when Narcissa arrived to help us. And if that is not enough, you tried to mind-rape us."

"I am sorry you think that. I was just trying to do what I thought was best. I hope you will one day understand."

"Anyway, enough about that," said Harry. "You also did not tell us about his resurrection. Why should we tell you things if you don't?"

"I see."

"Good. Anything else?"

"It is about Narcissa's attack against Fudge. If she continues, Fudge may be forced out of his office."

"I see no problem with that," Harry replied unconcerned,

"Now that Voldemort is back, it is time to work together. This is no time for petty disagreements. Fudge may not be the perfect Minister, but he is better than the alternative. Who knows who the next Minister will be? We can not afford to be divided now."

"I disagree," replied Harry. "Fudge is doing more harm than good. He is corrupt and he does whatever Malfoy tells him to do. Also, I am not worried about the next minister. I am sure that if you publicly support a candidate from the Gray faction, coupled to our fame we won't have any problems."

"From the Gray faction?"

"Of course, headmaster. After all, we can't have a death eater as a minister and your Light side doesn't have the votes. Anyway, Fudge needs to go. Anything else?"

"No Harry," sighed Dumbledore. "That is all. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, headmaster."

**-x-x-x-**

The next day, Harry and the girls were discussing the newspaper in the privacy of their quarters. "What do you think?"

"It's brilliant," said Daphne. "We told the people about Voldemort. We released the name of his inner circle and we made fun of them. The minister is discredited ... again. And Dumbledore is in trouble."

"Yeah, but why did he not respond to our accusations?" asked Susan.

"He doesn't have much of a choice," answered Lucy. She was obviously satisfied with the result of their last scheme. "He can't say that we are lying. If he does, he risks being discredited in the future when the truth comes out. He also can't say we're telling the truth because of Snape. If he says Snape was at the meeting, Fudge falls and we get the chance to get a minister from a new faction."

"Why is this bad for Dumbledore?" asked Tracy.

"Because the most likely winner would be us - someone from our side. He does not want us to become more powerful. If we do, we would kill the death eaters and he knows it. It is unlikely that someone from the Dark faction would be elected. And for someone loyal to Dumbledore to win, Dumbledore must invest a lot of political capital and show his public support. If that happens, it will be Dumbledore's responsibility to win the war that is coming and I do not think he wants that. If the Light side gets the ministry, they'll bungle the job. When Fudge was elected, he was supported by both Dumbledore and Lucius. I think Dumbledore wanted to keep Fudge in power and let him fail, then come save the day, probably using us in a suicidal battle that kills both us and Voldemort. However, since he tried that stunt - trying to arrest us in a bid to control us better, he began to realize that he was never in control. He also realized that the Gray side is gaining in strength."

"There is something wrong with Dumbledore's actions," said Luna. The others concentrated on Luna. They learned that Luna was surprisingly insightful when she was serious. "After he defeated Grindelwald, he became the most influential wizard in Britain. He was one of the leaders of the war against Voldemort. However, it was a disaster. It was a war and most of the death eaters were known, or at least suspected, but no one did anything about them. They let them kill, rape and torture. It is relatively easy to see if someone is under the Imperius or has the dark mark. However, no one tried to do that, it was allowed to spread. After the war, most of the death eaters escaped Azkaban Why is that? Dumbledore could have used his influence, but he did not. From what we know, he actually had a negative effect on the war, helping the death eaters. Another thing: Hogwarts - it is supposed to be the best magical school in the world, but since he became headmaster, the graduates are more and more unprepared. Look at the DADA teachers. Students should know how to defend themselves, but they know nothing. The other major problem is Snape. To become an auror, you need an outstanding in potions. However, most of those who get the grade are Slytherins and a couple Ravenclaws and come from pureblood families that have sympathies with the pureblood agenda. No matter his intentions, the fact is that he is helping the enemy.

**-x-x-x-**

Towards the end of June, the fourth and last final task of the tournament was about to begin. Harry, Lucy and Fleur were standing together before the entrance to the maze. In little more than an hour, the fourth task would begin. The rest of the girls except Tracy were with them.

Five minutes later, Tracy finally came. She looked worried.

"What happened?" asked Harry.

"You remember that guy whose back you broke? He's healed."

"Damn, I thought he'll never recover."

"That's not all. He was talking to the other champions. They know they have no chance to win since you are too strong, so he convinced them to band together until you, Lucy and Fleur are out of the race. Since that guy tried to kill Fleur last time, I don't think he'll be content with a simple incapacitating spell; he'll try to kill you.

"You're right. Unfortunately for him, we too will stay together. This time I'll make sure he'll stay down."

Hermione, Ron and Neville came towards them.

"We came to wish you good luck," said Neville. Since third year, Neville became friendlier. Harry gave him a few good books and some pointers (like getting rid of his second-hand wand). Since then, Neville grew in confidence and skill. He was now one of the strongest fourth years after Harry and the girls. He even got into a fight with Malfoy and won. Ron on the other hand was still the git he was in the first year. Hermione, as the teachers' pet she is, was upset that Harry was hostile to Dumbledore.

Just then, a house-elf popped with hot mugs of chocolate milk. The twins and the girls each took one.

"Harry, how could you?" shrieked Hermione.

"Oh, how inconsiderate of me. Three more."

"Yes master." The elf bowed and disappeared wit a pop. A few seconds later, he appeared with three more drinks.

Ron and Neville both got one, but Hermione looked as if she was about to explode. "Harry, how can you do this? They are slaves."

"Granger, shut up!" shouted Daphne when she realized that the griffindork was about to go on one of her crusades. "If you want to talk about house-elves rights, we can do that after the tournament. We don't need your nonsense now."

"It's not nonsense. This is important. They are ..."

Hermione was interrupted by Neville. "Come on Hermione. We can't bother them now."

"But ..."

"Good luck," Neville said after he gave Hermione a poke.

Harry looked at the departing trio and broke into an evil grin as an insane idea and an even more insane elf came to his mind.

**-x-x-x-**

The fourth task was to enter the maze, get passed its many dangers and touch the cup in the center of the maze.

Harry and Lucy entered first. They walked a few feet towards a wall and disillusioned themselves.

Next, Viktor Krum entered. He didn't even glance around as he sped through a side passage. Next Cedric came and took the opposite passage.

Finally, Fleur came. The twins appeared from thin air and walked together with Fleur on the third passage.

"You could have started without me," said Fleur. "You risked losing the cup."

"It's fine. We care less about the cup than about all our safety. It would be nice to get the cup, but it isn't all that important in the scheme of things," said Harry.

"Harry's right," Lucy added. "At first we wanted to win the cup. We wanted to distinguish ourselves. But we already did that in the previous three tasks. Besides we wanted to prove ourselves for political reasons, not because we want fame. We already accomplished our goals here. In any case, while Harry and I are capable of defeating the other six champions, you are not there yet. That guy would try to kill you if he got to you alone."

"I don't think he wants to kill me anymore," said Fleur.

"Yes he does," said Harry grimly. "You have a tracking charm on you. It belongs to him."

"What? Take it off."

"Not yet."

"Why?" asked a bewildered Fleur.

"I want to get rid of that bastard. I couldn't do that in the duel. But here, we don't have anyone that can see what we're doing." Harry motioned the other girls to stop.

"What is it?" asked Fleur.

"It's one of Hagrid's cute pets," groaned Lucy. The damn lobster appeared from behind a corner and rushed them.

Harry hissed a spell, but nothing happened for a second, then, the lobster froze.

"What happened?" asked Fleur. "What spell was that? I didn't see it."

"It's a variant of the Imperius curse," Harry explained. "With it, I can control an animal."

"Why do you want to control it?"

"Because, we have to make that bastards death look as unsuspicious as possible."

"You're going to kill him? Is that wise?"

"Yes. It's very wise Fleur. I won't let my enemies live if I can help it. He tried to kill you. His life is forfeit."

Fleur nodded in acceptance. Harry silently ordered the animal to follow them and Lucy disillusioned it.

Not even ten minutes later, Harry sensed someone following them. He ordered the assassin shell-less lobster to hide and stay quiet. When Harry felt the human assassin pass by the hidden animal, Harry ordered it to attack. The skrewt's tail hit the Durmstrang student in the back and Harry released the control he held over the beast, who started to rip apart the body.

The trio walked for a few more minutes and stopped. "Now that we took care of our little problem and we're far enough, it's time to get the cup," said Harry.

Lucy cast a spell and pointed to a wall. "The cup is that way."

Harry nodded and launched the same spell he and Lucy used in the third task to destroy the floor of the arena they fought on. Harry and the two girls passed through the hole made by the spell.

They continued to walk towards the cup in a mostly straight line. Sometimes the walked on the passages, sometimes they walked through holes in the walls.

Harry walked through another wall and ducked. A spell exploded where his body should have been. Harry attacked one of his attackers - Krum. Lucy flew through the hole and attacked Cedric. Finally, Fleur came through, saw one of her Beauxbatons colleagues. Lucy narrowed her eyes and launched some cutting and bone-breaking spells at the girl. The girls' eyes widened in fear and tried to shield herself. Fleur's spells battered the shield and the girl fell down in pain as some of the bone-breaking spells hit her. The twins were finished with their opponents and they launched some sparks in the air so that the three downed champions would receive medical attention.

The three champions continued their journey, encountered nothing. Finally, they arrived in the center of the maze, in front of the cup. An acromantulas attacked them, but Lucy killed it instantly with a well aimed cutting curse through the head.

"So, what now?" Lucy asked. "Who gets the cup?"

"We could share it," Harry suggested.

"You two should take it," said Fleur.

Lucy shook her head. "Nah. Everybody is expecting we share the cup. Now that we're here, we should fight for it."

"Fight?" asked Harry.

"Yes. We'll play rock, paper, scissor. The winner gets the cup."

"That sounds fair," agreed Harry.

Fleur grinned at the idea. "That's a great idea."

"Okay. Rock! Paper! Scissor!" Harry's had rock. Lucy and Fleur had paper.

"Damn," moaned Harry.

Lucy and Fleur grinned at each other. "Rock! Paper! Scissor!" Fleur had a scissor. Lucy had rock. "I win!" cried Lucy.

The three champions approached the cup. Lucy drew her wand and cast a few diagnostic spells. "It's clean," Lucy proclaimed.

**-x-x-x-**

The same day, the golden trio accosted the twins after dinned.

"I suppose you came to talk about house-elf rights?" Harry asked Hermione. At her nod, Harry walked towards an empty classroom. The rest of the girls followed since they knew something was about to happen.

"Harry, how could you ..."

"Give it a rest Hermione. You don't even know what you're talking about."

"What?"

Harry shook his head in disappointment. "Hermione; do you know what happens to an unbound elf? He slowly goes insane and loses his power."

"That can't be."

"Yes it can. Even if it wouldn't be, you don't have the right to try to forcefully give them freedom. What you are doing in your common room, leaving clothes for the cleaning elves to pick so they would become free is disgraceful. They are happy with their life."

"No! They are just brainwashed and I won't stop trying to set them free."

"You can't. You are not their master. That means you can't set them free. Only Dumbledore can do that. Anyway, Dobby and Winky are free elves and they are slowly going insane. They need a master. We already have enough elves, so we can't take them. I was thinking of asking you to take them in since you won't abuse them, but since you are so against it, many Ron should do it."

Hermione looked horrified at the idea. If Ron ever got a house elf, he would laze around all day and eat like a pig not only three times a day, but continuously.

"Or maybe I should ask Malfoy to take him back. Even that life is better than going slowly insane."

"You can't."

"Yes I can. Dobby will listen to my advice. Maybe I should find someone that has a lot to do. A house elf can work till he drops of exhaustion..."

"Okay!"

"What?"

"I'll do it," she grumbled.

"Excellent. Dobby! Winky!"

"Harry Potter sir asked for us?"

"Yes. How would you two like to become a proper elf again? To serve a family again."

"Oh, I thought Harry Potter sir would never ask," cried Dobby.

"Winky wants to be a proper elf, too"

"Excellent," said Harry. "This," Harry said pointing at Hermione, "is Hermione. She is my friend and is a very good person. I'm sure she will make a proper master."

Dobby's ears drooped, but Winky was excited.

"And I'm sure you two will be able to take proper care of her. I know I can trust you with this, Dobby."

Dobby perked up. "Yes Harry Potter sir. I will take good care of Harry Potter's Hermione."

"I'm sure you will. Since we got is covered, you can begin."

"Will Hermione Granger accept Dobby and Winky as her elves?" squeaked Dobby.

"Uh, okay."

"Congratulations," said Harry.

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

"You just got two house-elves."

Hermione nodded dumbly, wondering again how she got herself in this situation and left.

As soon as the three Gryffindors and the elves went away, Harry broke into a large smile. "Finally! I finally got that crazy elf off my back."

"Is this why you went to all this trouble?" asked Daphne.

"No. Dobby betrayed Malfoy to warn me. He could do it again. Since Hermione is a teacher's pet, and worships Dumbledore, I am certain that she will one day work for him. Dobby might be of use on that time.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author Notes**: Finally finished with fourth year.

There are so many fics where Harry and Dobby are friends even if Dobby annoys the hell out of him. Harry already has ... proper ... dignified elves so he passed the annoying little bugger to another annoying person.

Next year, we'll see Bellatrix a couple of times.

**_Reviews are much appreciated._**

Published: November 28 2008.

-voider-

**-x-x-x-**


	15. Plans and Battle

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 15.**

**Fifth year. (Summer.)**

**Plans and Battle.**

**-x-x-x-**

Harry woke cuddled between Bella and Gabi, with Bella's arm near his mouth. He smiled at the unblemished skin and kissed the place where the dark mark was placed by Voldemort. Fortunately, one of the things Lucy was able to take from the Dark Lord's mind when they stole the Stone, was the knowledge of how to create and destroy the Dark Mark. There was a chance of inflicting magical damage on the bearer of the mark, but since Bella had a strong magical connection to Harry, it was an easier operation than it would have normally been.

Lucy - who was between Gabi and Fleur, shifted in a half-awake state, nibbling on Fleur's breasts. The French girl moaned and opened her eyes slowly. "Mistress."

Lucy bit her breast slowly and climbed on top of the veela who pressed her mistress's head to her body. After she finished, Lucy gave the shuddering veela a long kiss before collapsing on her.

Gabi's eyes opened and she sighed in contentment.

Harry smiled and kissed the younger girl. As a veela, Gabi was different from humans. They matured faster; by the standards of her kind, she was an adult and her sixteen-years-old looking body proved it. Their mind was different from the human mind - as different as Harry's, Lucy's or Alicia's. If they were human, they would be considered deviants and insane by the standard of the human species. Fortunately, they were not. 'And I am most grateful for that,' he thought as he drank from the beautiful girl; almost as grateful as he was for the existence of his twin.

'I love you too Harry,' Lucy whispered in his mind.

'Did you ever wonder what would have happened?' Harry asked suddenly.

'If we did not have each other? If we were alone? If it was only Harry or only Lucy; not Harry and Lucy?'

'Yes.'

Lucy thought for a few seconds. 'We would not be what we are today. We would have been a slave to Dumbledore's whims.'

Harry growled and Gabi melted more in his embrace.

'Think about it Harry. You care more about me than you care for yourself. And I care more about you than I care for myself. Why did you kill the Dursleys? Was it because they hurt you? Or because they hurt me?'

'You.'

'You always protected me. You put me before yourself. You took the blame for everything that happened when we were little, but you never gave up. We never cared if others hated us. We never hoped for affection from the Dursleys or anyone else because we had each other. You lived so I could live. I lived so you could live. You will do anything to protect us. You will do anything to stay alive so you would be able to protect us. And I will do the same. We are each others anchor. But if we were alone? Would I have yearned for friends? Would you have wanted love from our ... beloved aunt and uncle?'

'Ew.'

'Yeah. If you entered the Wizarding World, you would have hoped for a new beginning, for friends and family. Our beloved headmaster would have been in a perfect position to put himself as your savior, or mine.'

Harry shuddered at the idea.

Lucy jumped off Fleur, gently displaced Gabi and hugged her twin. "Let's not think of such things. We are together, surrounded by our mates, safe."

**-x-x-x-**

Narcissa, followed by Tonks and Alicia, entered the library.

"Tonks?" Harry asked seeing the grim expressions on the three women's faces. "What happened?"

After Lucy became the Black Lady, Tonks and her mother were reinstated back into the Black family. Tonks decided to become an auror, and this year, she was invited to join the Order of the Phoenix at the recommendation of a fellow auror. Tonks however, was faithful to her new family. They were actually surprised Dumbledore allowed her entrance, as the matter of Tonks reinstatement was common knowledge.

The auror crashed onto the sofa and groaned in satisfaction at its softness. "The Order had an emergency meeting."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Snape," she sneered. "He reports that Voldemort is beginning to make a move. He ordered Malfoy to hire some non-British assassins with no links to the death eaters. He wants to kill aunt Narcissa and Amelia Bones. They are making too much damage to his campaign, apparently. Though it's a little surprising after his orders not to announce his presence to the public."

Narcissa shook hear head. "Not really. Amelia is beginning to shake up things with the aurors. And I am the public face of the Gray faction. Using our links, we managed to partially discredit Voldemort. The Daily Prophet, which belongs to us, is full of stories about Tom the half-blood Riddle. We could not convince the population that Voldemort is back, but we managed to insinuate that the Death Eaters are gathering again, under a new leader; possibly one that is pretending to be him. We managed to stop many laws of the Wizengamot against magical creatures, especially the Dark ones. The Gray faction businesses hire werewolves and supply them with the wolfsbane potion."

"And the vampires see that my coven, which is now considered one of the stronger ones, is a respected member of the Grey faction," Alicia said. "In the last few years, we did more for their rights than Dumbledore promised in the last war. If they have to choose between Dumbledore - who does nothing to help them, Voldemort - who thinks vampires are only a step above the disgusting muggles, the ministry - which wants to get rid of them and us - who are ruled by the powerful Lord of Shadows, they will choose us or be neutral. It also doesn't hurt that there are ... rumors about him being some sort of uber ancient master vampire," she finished with a smile.

Narcissa nodded. "And the goblins also favor us and not only for our willingness to respect their rights and our deals with them. Using the money from our vaults and from our allies, we opened and expanded many businesses. Our willingness to ignore some traditions and hire not based on blood, but on merit, gives us a significant financial advantage. If there is one thing goblins love, it is good business and money."

"There is also the new generation to consider," Lucy said. "Until now, they had to choose between Dark and Light. Now, some of them will choose us. Harry and I are respected ... or at least feared by the Hogwarts students. Until now, Voldemort had no real, effective opposition. He was free to recruit from not only the wizard population, but also from the magical creatures. Some wizards would have allied with Dumbledore, if only he was more effective. But Dumbledore's people died in droves and those who were smart enough to want to survive tried to stay neutral or served Voldemort. Now, they have a better choice: we are not bloodthirsty insane murderers and we are considered effective and strong enough to protect ourselves and those under our protection. Amelia, Narcissa, Harry and I never go anywhere without bodyguards. It is well known that we have an entire coven of dangerous vampires. Recently, it is also known that we hired the best curse-breakers to ward our homes and businesses, and that we have hit-wizards on permanent retainer."

Narcissa nodded. "Voldemort must be desperate to do something to break our power. If Amelia and I were to be killed, it would not only disrupt our plans, but it would also send a message; that we are weak; that we can not protect ourselves. And if we can not protect someone who is constantly surrounded by bodyguards, what chance do we have to protect others?"

"So what did Dumbledore say?" Harry asked.

Tonks shrugged. "He said Narcissa and Amelia are well protected and we don't have to worry about it. He only told me and Shack to keep and eye on Amelia. He said that Narcissa was so well protected that we could do nothing more for her."

"What about warning us?" Narcissa asked.

"He said that we can not risk Snape's role as a spy," Tonks replied.

"So what are we going to do?" Narcissa asked.

Harry shared a long look with Lucy. "Narcissa, from now on, I don't want you anywhere in public. And I want your guard doubled. The same with Amelia."

"Won't Dumbledore know I told you about it?" Tonks asked.

"He'll think we got this from our own spies," Lucy replied.

"But what if this was a trap?" Tonks looked worried. "What if this is one of Dumbledore's tricks? What if Snape lied on Dumbledore's orders and there are no assassins. What if he is just flushing the spies in the Order?"

The twins shared another look. "That is possible. Do you want to get out of the Order?"

"No!" Tonks shook her head. "Harming me isn't Dumbledore's style. I'm just worried he might be trying to feed you false information through me."

Harry nodded and looked at Alicia. "We'll have to take the threat seriously. I want you to prepare a trap for our assassins."

The vampire nodded. "Yes master. If Narcissa and Amelia are too protected in the day, and if we offer them an easy target where they can strike at both of them we'll have our trap."

"Good. Anything else?" Harry asked Tonks.

"Not really. The same old story," Tonks chuckled. "Both Voldemort and Dumbledore are searching for the mysterious Lord of Shadows, wasting money and time."

Harry grinned. "So, what's the latest rumor?"

"You should ask Narcissa and Alicia," Tonks replied amused. "After all, they are the ones who make them."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the two women. "Well?"

Narcissa shrugged. "It's just another variant on the immortal sorcerer."

"Those are always good," Harry nodded and looked at Alicia.

"The latest rumor in the Dark creatures' community is that the Lord of Shadows shared some of his abilities with me and my coven and that we are immune to most vampires' weaknesses."

"Uh, that's kind of the truth," Harry muttered. "Is that wise?"

Alicia's bonding with the twins gave her some of the twins' gifts. Further rituals gave her more. Alicia, as a coven leader, could share some of her natural gifts and the ones she received from the twins, to her coven. The vampires also went through some of the rituals Alicia went through.

"Quite wise master. As some of our coven got into a few fights, this was already suspected for some time by a few. Vampires respect power and fewer weaknesses mean more power."

**-x-x-x-**

"Master! Mistress!" Alicia rushed in the middle of dinner. "It is happening. The wards to Amelia's house are under attack."

The twins smiled grimly, and rushed to dress into their battle gear.

The three strongest witches from the group: Bella, Ginny and Su Li, who were specially trained for battle rushed to their own rooms to get equipped.

Bella was, despite years in Azkaban, their best fighter after the twins. The rituals the twins and Narcissa performed on her brought her body to a perfect condition and repaired her mind as much as possible. After two years of ... reeducation, Bella managed to become a ... "nice" sociopath.

Ginny received a magical boost, courtesy of Tom Riddle's journal, that made her as strong as Bella.

Su Li was trained from childhood as a warrior. Though not quite as strong as Bella, she was at least physically, better trained than her. As a bonus, her style was strange for a British wizard, which made her a formidable fighter.

Since Narcissa's home was unknown and she was too well protected at when she was in public, as was Amelia; the assassins decided, as Alicia planned, to attack Amelia's home. The strong wards had a deliberate weakness in their design; weakness that gave the assassins a tempting target. Today it was the well known regular meeting between the leaders of the Gray faction. Since the house was so well warded, the need for security was minimal, or so the public was given reason to believe. For the assassins, this was the perfect way to get rid of both Narcissa and Amelia. They believed that after they brought down the wards, they would have no problem in dealing with the minimal security.

Two minutes later, Harry, Lucy and their two familiars, Bella, Ginny and Su Li were outside the castle. Alicia and five vampire squads were ready for battle. A hit-wizard squad was also present and their leader approached.

The vampires were well trained and experienced. Alicia and her five master vampires that served as squad leaders were formidable warriors. Vampires almost always fought with swords. Their speed made them extremely dangerous in close combat. Vampires were usually easily repelled by certain spells that used the vampire weaknesses. However now, the master vampires were almost immune to them and the normal vampires were only weakened. The thing that made them so dangerous now, was the fact that they had new swords, similar to Alicia's and the twins'. They were specially made and enchanted to be indestructible and were able to stop or deflect most spells aimed at them.

"We are ready master," Alicia said. "The assassins erected wards to stop any form of magical travel."

Harry nodded and looked at the wizard commander. "I want the hit-wizard squad to erect anti-apparition and anti-pork-key wards. If they break their wards, I don't want them to escape. After that, you're to take defensive positions and stand-by."

"Yes sir."

"Let's go." The twins jumped in the air, their raven familiars on their shoulders and disappeared with a silent crack.

-x-x-x-

High above the Bones residence, the twins apparated and transformed in the air into their raven form.

Four black ravens glided on the currents of air, watching the ground.

The wards of the bones residence were already down. Even if they were deliberately flawed, the attackers still needed a few minutes to destroy them. The assassins however could not go through their plan. They thought they would encounter only a few defenders. The truth was that a squad of hit-wizards was permanently stationed inside the house after the wards were weakened.

The hit-wizards apparated around the house, at a safe distance, and they began to raise wards to prevent the escape of the assassins.

Twelve attackers were outside the entrance to the Bones residence, bogged down by the spell fire coming from the house.

Alicia and her vampires port-keyed well behind the battle and ordered two of her squads to take defensive positions with the hit-wizards. Since she had superior numbers, she could split her forces for the eventuality Voldemort and his death eaters were to join the fight. If he did, one squad of hit-wizards and two of vampires would manage to at least slow them down.

Bella, Ginny, Su and the vampires advanced stealthily towards the field of battle.

When the twins saw that their forces were in position, they descended towards the attackers, leaving their smaller familiars in the sky.

The two familiars screamed and the defenders from the house stopped firing.

Lucy flew towards the man that was guarding the assassins' backs from attack. The man felt something and turned around, crouching and ready to curse whatever pricked his danger sense, but saw nothing. He felt the wind on his skin when Lucy changed above him, from her raven form into her human one, wand in one hand, sword in the other. She landed with her feet on his back, sword plunging through his heart and wand pointed on the rest of the assassins.

Harry flew towards three of the assassins who were behind a fountain. He suspected their leader was the man in the middle. Harry changed into his human form when he was above their heads and fired a bone-breaking hex at the man to the right, killing him instantly and continued his controlled landing, slashing with his katana the man to the left, wounding him fatally.

The other attackers turned towards Harry and prepared to curse him, but Lucy and the three other witches fired large-area concussion hexes at them, disorienting and forcing them to take cover. Seizing the opportunity, the vampires rushed towards the attackers.

The assassin leader snarled when his flanking comrades began to fall and fired a wide cutting hex at Harry.

Harry managed to erect a shield and deflected the spell. He then hissed and fired a spell, forcing the assassin to dodge it, but the man also fired another curse as he did so.

Harry deflected the curse with his sword and fired another spell.

This time, the man cast a shield. The spell hit the shield and it collapsed just in time for Lucy's stunner to hit the man in the back.

Harry cast another stunner at the man and watched as the vampires finished the rest of the assassins. At least two vampires attacked each assassin. Due to the sudden ambush, the attackers barely managed to fire two or three spells before the vampires were in sword reach. Unfortunately for the assassins, the vampires deflected the rushed spells with ease and the remaining attackers were killed by the superior numbers with ease, only seconds after the vampires reached them.

**-x-x-x-**

After the short battle was over, the curse-breakers were called to repair the wards, this time without giving them a flaw. Harry and the girls went back home, taking their prisoner and Amelia with them.

"So why did you went to all that trouble to capture their leader?" Amelia asked.

"As leader of the DMLE, it is probably better if you don't know," Lucy replied with a smile.

"But..."

"But nothing," Harry cut her. "What do you want us to do? Do you think we would be able to convict Malfoy?" Harry shook his head. "If we try, Fudge will give the assassin the kiss before he can testify. And if we don't, Voldemort will have one more potential recruit in Azkaban. You know as well as I do that when the time comes, the Dementors will side with Voldemort and help him take over Azkaban. I won't let potential Death Eaters live if I can help it."

Amelia sighed unhappily, but nodded.

"Don't worry, as Dumbledore says, it's for the greater good," Harry grinned.

"In more ways than one," Lucy nodded.

**-x-x-x-**

The twins entered the cell where the assassin was chained to the wall. Behind then, Alicia and Bella flanked them.

"Hello Mr. assassin," Harry said pleasantly.

"Harry Potter," he snarled. "You killed my men. I'll come for you even if it takes me decades. One day, I'll ..."

"You presume too much," Lucy interrupted the raving man. "You are going to die. We must give a lesson to all those who would hurt us. Not only the assassins, but to those who hired them as well."

"You think I am going to betray my employer, little girl?" the man sneered.

"There is no need to tell us. It was Lucius Malfoy."

The man narrowed his eyes. "What do you want from me?"

"You will try to kill Malfoy," Harry answered pleasantly.

The man relaxed, thinking he had a way of escape. "And what would I get from this?"

"Nothing," Lucy whispered and struck with her mind at the man. She broke through his flimsy mental shields and begun shredding his mind, making the man scream silently. A long hour later, the man was only an empty husk.

Lucy smiled tiredly and implanted her commands into the man's mind. Unlike the Imperius curse, there was no way of escape from what Lucy did. The man would die in a few days, trying to accomplish his mission or from the permanent damage to his mind. There was no chance of survival. More importantly, there was no way for anyone to save the man or learn anything of importance from his memories. After all, those memories were no more.

"Release him," Harry ordered.

**-x-x-x-**

A few days later, in the Wizengamot session.

"... and all this talk of the Dark Lord is nothing more than the work of sensationalist journalists," Lucius Malfoy said exasperated. "We don't need more aurors to fight figments of our imagination; we need more money for our hospitals and for our children. Thank you."

Narcissa stood up. "I ask my esteemed Lords and Ladies to reject this ... insanity. How can we reduce the funding to the auror department when a Dark Lord wannabe is fulminating the death eater remnant to action? And they are not the only ones who are a danger to our society. There are many criminals who would have much to gain from the weakening of the auror force. Only a few days ago, Lord Malfoy was attacked by an insane man. He was fortunate for having extensive training in the dark arts..." Narcissa cleared her throat and smiled charmingly. "Excuse me, defense against the dark arts. But how many of us can say that they have Lord Malfoy's extensive ... training? Will you let our children unprotected? Will you let thugs and murderers free reign over us?"

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's Notes**: Sorry for the late update, but it's finally here.

_Like always, reviews are much appreciated._

Published: January 10 2009.

-voider-

-x-x-x-


	16. Come and Go

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 16.**

**Fifth year.**

**Come and Go.**

**-x-x-x-**

The twins and the girls were arrayed outside the castle, ready to leave for the train station.

Gabi was visibly upset and Harry hugged her. "Why so sad?" he asked.

"You'll be gone for months," the young veela answered with a pout. "I wish I could come with you."

"I know, but do you really want to be a first year at Hogwarts?"

The girl shrugged. "You would be there."

"Yes, but I would not want to risk you. Hogwarts is a bit dangerous."

"The others are going," Gabi pointed out.

"Yes, but they are relatively experienced; they can defend themselves. You on the other hand, haven't begun your magical education yet. Also, your veela charm is active now. I do not trust the student body to keep their hands off you and I do not trust the teachers with your safety. I will not risk you!" Harry caressed Gabi's cheek, making the girl sigh in contentment. "Do you understand?"

Gabi nodded into Harry's chest. "Okay."

"Until we come back," Harry said giving her a soft kiss, "be a good pet and study from your tutors."

Since Gabi was a mature veela, and Hogwarts was so unaccustomed with non-humans, Harry decided that she would stay home and be taught by private tutors. A better choice than Hogwarts was Beauxbatons, but while there was less danger at the French school, she would have been unprotected if she went there. There was another problem besides the danger: Gabi would have few to no friends there, due to her veela power. If she stayed home however, she would have her sister, Narcissa and Bella and the vampires as friends and companions.

**-x-x-x-**

After they arrived at King's Cross, Alicia was uncomfortable with leaving. "Master, it would be much safer if we came with you until we reach Hogwarts' wards. The train is not safe. Failing that, we could apparate there instead of using the train."

Harry shook his head. "Relax, Alicia. We'll be perfectly safe."

"But master, what if Voldemort attacks the train."

"If that happens, we'll be able to defend ourselves until you arrive."

Alicia put her hand between her breasts to feel the comfort of the latest necklace carried by not only her, but by the twins, the rest of the girls and the master vampires from her coven. The necklaces were the result the knowledge stolen from Dumbledore's and Voldemort's mind. It served several functions: it was a locator, a communicator, multiple portkey, and it could act like a portkey and apparition beacon, similar to the dark mark, allowing one of the authorized possessors to be transported to the location of any other necklace as long as the area was not under anti-portkey or anti-apparition wards.

"Yes, master," she sighed unhappily. "I am just worried about what Voldemort might try. He will not be content to operate in the shadows for too long."

"I know, but hopefully, we still have time until that happens. Take care of things while we're gone."

**-x-x-x-**

After the last goodbyes, the twins and the girls climbed into the train, found an empty compartment and enlarged it.

Even before the train begun to move, Draco Malfoy decided to interrupt them. Pansy Parkinson, Crab and Goyle were with him. Malfoy touched his prefect badge and smirked at the occupants. Both he and Parkinson were chosen by Snape to be the fifth year Slytherin prefects.

Most of the Hogwarts houses were split after Harry and Lucy arrived to school. Until then, the allegiances were clear - all the Slytherins were in the Dark camp, the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs were in the Light one, and the Ravenclaws were split between the two.

Now, things were much different, there were three sides. The Light camp with Dumbledore and the Gryffindor trio of Ron, Hermione and Neville, the Dark camp who polarized around Draco and supported the death eater, pureblood agenda, and the Gray side, represented by the Potter twins.

In Gryffindor, most of the students were still in the Light camp, with a very small minority in Harry's camp.

The Hufflepuffs on the other hand, changed their allegiances the most. While the snakes and lions fought and hated each other with a burning passion, both houses considered the puffs their personal doormats. It was Harry and Lucy who protected the lower years from bullying. It was the twins who made and enforced the peace. The puffs saw that the Potter twins always helped them, unlike the professors who ignored (or made - in Snape's case), the problems. For this, a large number of the Hufflepuffs supported the Gray side.

The Ravenclaws split themselves between the three sides.

The Slytherins split themselves between Malfoy's junior death eaters and the twins' Gray side.

Thanks to the twins' support from all the houses, their prestige and magical strength, they were the top dog in school. Because of that, Malfoy and to a lesser extent, Granger and Ron Weasley were always trying to gain more influence and gain the superior position from the twins. And they thought they did; Malfoy, Granger and Weasley became prefects. Since Snape hated Harry and Lucy, they did not receive the prefect badge, despite the fact they deserved it. From their group, only Susan became a prefect.

"Potter," he sneered. "This year is going to be different. I'm a prefect."

"Oh?" Harry asked without interest and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes Potter. I'm going to enjoy assigning you detentions."

At Malfoy's words, most of the girls in the compartment snorted.

"Malfoy," Lucy said in disgust, "What makes you think we'd do them."

"Don't you see the badge? I'm a prefect."

"And Snape is a professor," Lucy sneered. "If he can't make us do detentions, what makes you think you can?"

Susan glared at the blond boy. "Malfoy, I'm also a prefect, so don't think you can do whatever you want."

Lucy drew her wand and pointed it towards the intruders. "Listen, Malfoy, you think too highly of yourself. The only reason we didn't step too hard on you was because of Narcissa." "Now, sod off and take your dogs with you! You're starting to annoy me."

Malfoy glowered at them, as if he was pondering the chances of getting on top after a fight.

All the occupants of the compartment knew that any one of them was more than able of defeating the four Slytherins. Besides the training they had every summer and in the room of requirements at Hogwarts, they also performed various rituals to increase their resistance to magical and physical attacks, healing factor, immunity, magical and physical abilities. Most of them were minor rituals that increased their abilities. It was nowhere near what someone like Voldemort did to himself, but far more than a normal wizard.

Even the youngest of the group were too strong for an underage wizard like Malfoy. Luna, Susan, Hannah, Daphne and Tracy had a good chance of defeating even an average auror.

Ginny and Su were by this point almost on par with Bellatrix. In this category, Alicia and her Second - Luciella also belonged. There were few witches and wizards at this level, some of them, were in Voldemort's inner circle.

Harry and Lucy were even stronger. In Britain, there were few wizards or creatures that could stand against them. There were only two wizards that were stronger than them - Dumbledore and Voldemort, who had decades to increase their cores and gain experience and knowledge.

**-x-x-x-**

At the feast, Harry raised an eyebrow at the new teacher.

"That's Dolores Umbridge, she works for Fudge," Daphne said. "Dumbledore was not able to get a teacher, so the minister chose one of his cronies for the position."

Harry cocked an eyebrow. "Is this about that new decree?"

"Yes," Daphne nodded. "If the school can't find a teacher, the ministry is entitled to find one."

"So, what do you know about her?" Lucy asked.

"She's a disgusting toad and Narcissa hates her," Daphne answered promptly.

"Why?" Tracy asked.

"She hates all non-humans and all those who associate with them," Daphne explained. "From the very start when Narcissa stepped into the Wizengamot guarded by vampires, Umbridge became our enemy. She did a lot to oppose Narcissa."

"I wonder why she is here," Harry said.

"Probably, it's because of you," Daphne said. "I think Fudge sent her here to keep an eye on us."

**-x-x-x-**

The twins, Daphne and Tracy entered the DADA class with the Gryffindors and took their seats at the back of the classroom.

The new DADA professor, Umbridge entered the room. "Good morning, class," she said in a disgusting voice laced with false kindness.

The students mumbled a greeting halfheartedly.

"Now, now," Umbridge frowned at the class. "Is that the proper way you return a professor's greeting? Let's try again. Good morning, class."

"Good morning, professor Umbridge," the class answered dutifully. The twins suppressed their disgust and answered along with the class.

Umbridge nodded, looking pleased, but then frowned at the students. "You can put your wands away. You won't need them for this class."

"But what about practicing spells," Granger protested.

"All you need, is to read the ministry approved manual. You don't need to practice spells."

"But how can we pass our practical OWLs if we don't practice?"

"Miss Granger," Umbridge said patronizingly, "as long as you pay attention in class, you will do well."

"But professor," another Gryffindor spoke up. It was Neville Longbottom. "There's no way we can do spells without practicing. If we don't practice, how can we defend ourselves?"

"Mr. Longbottom, I don't know what kind of professors you had until now, though I can take a guess what kind of education you had, if one of your teachers was a half-breed werewolf."

"Professor Lupin was our best teacher," Weasley protested.

"If he was your best teacher, I shudder to think at the competence of your less competent teachers. Some, shall we say, less than loyal elements of our society," Umbridge said, looking at Lucy and Harry, "have been trying to undermine the ministry, spreading rumors and lies. Rest assured that our auror forces are more than competent of protecting us. This is not the auror training program, it is a school." Umbridge fell silent for a few long moments, waiting for one of the twins to say something. "Well, Potter?" she asked.

'She's trying to goad us into saying something,' Lucy thought to her twin.

Harry nodded slightly. 'Let's disappoint her,' Harry replied over their mental link.

"Well what, professor?" Lucy raised an eyebrow.

"How do you answer to that?"

"To what?" Harry asked.

"To the fact that your ... so called Lord of Shadows," the professor said with disgust, "is deliberately trying to panic the population with false rumors of death eater activity."

The twins stared blankly at the toad.

"Answer, Potter."

"You still didn't ask us anything," Lucy replied.

Umbridge narrowed her eyes and sneered at the girl. "Detention Potter, both of you, for your lack of respect."

**-x-x-x-**

After detention, the twins met with the rest of the girls and told them what happened with their detention with Umbridge.

"Why did you let her do that to you?" Ginny asked outraged. "I'm going to skin that disgusting toad alive." The rest of the girls seemed to agree.

"Relax! We're fine." Lucy said.

"No you're not," Susan shot back. "Writing with blood quills so many times will make a scar."

"You forget that we are not exactly human." Harry showed his hand to the girls. "See! There's no scar."

"I still think we should get rid of her," Ginny muttered.

Harry glanced at his twin and nodded. "We will. But there's more than one way to go about that. Normally, I'd just put her in the same category with common death eaters and have her killed in some dark alley ..."

"But we have a better use for her," Lucy finished. "I don't think she's abusing her position with only us. Susan. I want you to ask around. Find out if she uses that blood quill on others, or if she does other illegal things. Get as much dirt as you can. Daphne, have Narcissa dig around."

**-x-x-x-**

Two weeks later, Amelia Bones, four aurors, Narcissa and a dozen of their bodyguards entered the Great Hall and approached the teachers' table.

Dumbledore stood up. "Amelia, Narcissa," he said ignoring the aurors and bodyguards, "care for some breakfast?" he asked.

"No headmaster," Amelia answered.

"Oh? Then what can I do for you?"

Amelia looked at Umbridge and scowled. "Dolores Umbridge, you are under arrest for the torture and abuse of minors."

The professors, (except Dumbledore who looked grandfatherly superior), were shocked, but did not look displeased. After all, Umbridge made herself hated by not only the student body, but by the professors as well.

Two aurors advanced on the professor with their wands drawn.

"You can't do this!" she shrieked. "Do you know who I am? I am the ..."

One of the aurors cast a spell, and Umbridge fell silent and still.

Most of the students begun cheering and clapping their hands together when the aurors levitated the defense teacher out of the hall.

"Albus," Amelia shook her head in disgust, "I don't understand what kind of school you run here if you allow such abuse to take place under your nose." With that, the director of magical law enforcement turned around and left followed by the aurors and six bodyguards..

"Dumbledore," Narcissa sneered. "Only one of your last five defense teachers was competent. First a Dark Lord, then an incompetent who likes to steal other people's achievements and Obliviate them, a death eater and now, a child abuser?!? Since I fear that your incompetence will bring another criminal or murderer to teach children, I'll have the board of governors select a suitable teacher."

With that, Narcissa turned around and left in a ring of bodyguards.

The twins and Daphne stood up and followed her. They walked in silence until they exited the castle. Another six bodyguards were waiting for them and joined their protective detail in silence.

"So, will it work?" Harry asked.

Narcissa smiled predatorily and nodded. "Two years ago, when we spread the news that Lucius was involved in the basilisk incident, he got thrown out of the board and lost most of his influence with them. At the moment, we have a solid forty percent in the board of governors. It won't be too hard to convince them to select someone of our choosing."

They were near the gates of Hogwarts when a voice caught them. "Mother!"

Narcissa froze and turned around to see Draco Malfoy incapacitated by two of their bodyguards.

"You can let him go," Narcissa said.

The vampires let go to Draco's arms and retreated a few steps.

Draco sneered at the vampires and stood up. "Mother," Draco said coldly.

"Draco," Narcissa replied politely. "Are you here to take me on that offer?"

"Of course not," Draco spat. "I'm not a filthy blood traitor!"

"Draco, I had hoped that you'd escape your father's idiotic ideals. But I see you are too far gone."

"You betrayed us!"

"Us? Who is this us? You, Draco? Lucius? The Malfoys? The pureblood agenda? The death eaters? Voldemort?"

"Yes..." Draco replied through clenched teeth.

Narcissa shook her head. "Who did I betray? I gave you the choice of leaving all this behind, of starting again away from here. I only married Lucius because I had no choice. The Malfoys are nothing to me. I have no use for the pureblood agenda; it is all nonsense. The death eaters are nothing more than murderers, rapist and thugs; they are slaves to Voldemort's disgusting whims. And Voldemort ... he is nothing more than an insane, disgusting abomination."

"How dare you insult the Dark Lord? It's your fault Potter," Draco glared at Harry. "You're the one who spread these lies around."

"I really don't understand you Draco," Harry said in a bored tone. "I gave you proof that Tom is a half blood, and you still refuse to accept the truth."

"Of course," Lucy snorted. "The death eaters would never admit it. If they did, they would have to admit a half blood is stronger than them and that they kiss his feat on a regular basis."

"Not to mention, Tom would kill them," Daphne piped up.

"Honestly Draco, are you not a Slytherin?" Narcissa asked. "How can you choose the side with the insane Dark Lord who tortures his followers more than his enemies? Will you kneel at his feat like a house elf?"

"What about you?" Draco shot back. "Surrounded by ... vampires. How can you stand them? It's said that the ... Gray Lord," he said with a disgusted sneer, "isn't even human! You stand there spouting nonsense about the Dark Lord's heritage. What about your new master?"

"First Draco, I have no problem with non-humans," Narcissa sighed at the stupidity of her son. "Second, the job has its perks - it's every Slytherin's dream. I am now in control of a great deal of power. More power than your father ever dreamed of." The blond woman was silent for a few short moments. "Besides power," she glanced at Harry and Lucy, "there are also a few other quite fulfilling perks."

"Like what?"

Both Harry and Narcissa were silent, but Lucy couldn't help herself; she cupped Narcissa's chin, making the taller woman lower her head into a hungry kiss from Lucy.

Draco's eyes almost popped out of his head and Harry suppressed a snort; Daphne didn't.

Lucy, not satisfied with only a kiss, cupped Narcissa's right breast, making the woman moan.

"Mother, what are you doing?" Draco shrieked.

"What do you think? She's kissing Lucy," Harry answered amused.

"But ... she's a girl!"

"Get off your high horse, Malfoy," Daphne sneered. "It's not like they're doing something you and Snape never did."

"That never happened! It's all lies!"

"Sure it is," Daphne nodded. "That's why almost half the school saw you ..." Daphne made a disgusted face and shuddered before continuing. "...doing things with Snape."

"That's not true. I'm not gay!"

"Don't worry, Draco," Harry said sympathetically. "I don't think it's your fault. I think it's genetic. You see, your father is gay and your mother is bi. It's not surprising you inherited your father's sexual preferences."

"Yeah Draco," Daphne nodded sympathetically. "It's not your fault, not that there's anything wrong with it. I mean, who am I to throw stones at you?"

Draco's face reddened with impotent rage, glanced at his mother who was still kissing Lucy, turned around, and with a final, "I'm not gay!" he left.

After Draco left, an aroused Lucy dragged Narcissa beyond the school gates, behind a thick tree and pinned her to it. Ignoring the vampire bodyguards surrounding them, Lucy sank her fangs in Narcissa's neck.

When Lucy finished, she healed the wound with a lick and gave Narcissa a final gentle kiss. "Thank you, my dear. That was delicious."

"Thank you, my Lady."

"So, was it wise to let Draco know that Narcissa is more than an ally?" Daphne asked after a minute of silence. "Won't this put her in even more danger?"

"No," Narcissa answered. "There's nothing that would put me in more danger. I'm already on top of Voldemort's list of people to kill along with Harry, Lucy and our Lord of Shadows."

"And Draco's reaction was quite funny," Lucy said with a smirk. Lucy glanced at Narcissa and sighed. "Narcissa ..." she begun in a slightly embarrassed voice.

"There is no need to regret what we did, my Lady." Narcissa interrupted.

"Still, he's your son."

"No he isn't," Narcissa said in a regretful tone. "He stopped being my son a long time ago. I had virtually no hand in educating him. Lucius took him and transformed him into a clone of himself. He became everything I hate in his father. Even before my divorce, I despised what he became, but I still felt I had a parental obligation towards him. That is why I offered him the chance to leave the country after the divorce. Today, I looked at him and realized that even that obligation is gone," she said sadly.

**-x-x-x-**

The next day at dinner, the Gryffindor trio saw that a beautiful black haired woman was at the teacher's table. She looked no older than twenty years old, with black eyes and alabaster skin.

"Who's that?" Hermione asked. "She looks familiar ..."

Ron Weasley drooled at the woman who was almost as beautiful as Fleur Delacour, though without the veela charm. Hermione slapped the back of his head and opened her mouth to berate him, but she saw something strange. Neville Longbottom paled and looked as if he was about to faint.

"Neville?" Hermione asked. "What's wrong?"

"That ... woman ... she is ..."

**-x-x-x-**

Dumbledore rose to his feat, drawing the attention of the students. "As you all know, your former defense professor, Dolores Umbridge, was arrested yesterday. Fortunately, the board of governors of the school has selected a new teacher. Your new defense against the dark arts will be ... Bellatrix Black."

**-x-x-x-**

At the Slytherin table, Harry, Lucy and the rest of the girls were smirking at the announcement.

Narcissa, as the representative of the board of governors, informed the headmaster of the decision. Dumbledore did not receive the news that Bella would be the new teacher without resistance. If he hadn't hired Snape who was a death eater as the Potions professor, a Dark Lord, a criminal, a werewolf, a death eater and a ministry official who was now accused of torturing the students under her charge, as DADA teachers, then he might have had a chance to block Bella's appointment. Unfortunately for the old man, he could hardly protest against hiring Bella who was exonerated of all her actions as a death eater.

"Dumbledore doesn't look too pleased with the new appointment," Daphne said.

"For all his reputation as the great leader of the Light," Lucy said thoughtfully, "somehow, his choices always do more harm than good."

"Yeah, look at Snape. That death eater scum's action drove the Slytherins into the arms of the death eaters."

"Not anymore," Daphne said. "The students fear, respect or love you more than Dumbledore and Snape put together. You managed to repair quite a bit of the damage they made."

"Yes," Lucy said thoughtfully. "Also, since most of the students have now at least basic mental shields, it's much harder for Snape and Dumbledore to influence them with legilimency. While they are both master manipulators, especially Dumbledore, without passive and active legilimency, it's much harder for him to make the students worship him. If you lack any mental shields, Dumbledore can manipulate you into almost anything. Now, he's more or less your average old man instead of the wise, kind, benevolent, godly, trustworthy, grandfatherly figure."

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's Notes**: Well, next chapter, we have Professor Black's DADA class. Um ... Bella is still a bit of a sociopath.

We (most likely) won't see any more girls added to the "inner circle."

Something about Remus. The twins never got close to him because he was too loyal to Dumbledore. Also, in canon, Harry became friends with Remus because he was a link to James and he was starved for info about them. Harry was closer to Sirius. With Sirius dead, and Harry (and Lucy) not needing stories about their parents, they are more or less acquaintances. Same thing with Hagrid and Mcgonagal; they're too loyal to Dumbledore, so the twins don't want to make friends with them.

It is unlikely Remus will enter the Gray faction. He is Light and hates the Dark. He hates his werewolf.

Another thing... why the katana and not other type of sword? Because "Katanas Are Just Better," and cooler.

_**Like always, reviews are much appreciated.**_

Published: April 15, 2009.

-voider-

**-x-x-x-**


	17. Lessons and Truths

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 17.**

**Fifth year.**

**Lessons and Truths.**

**-x-x-x-**

The Slytherin and Gryffindor fifth years entered the defense classroom and took their seats in silent trepidation. Most of the students from both houses were wary of the new DADA teacher. The lions - because Bellatrix Black was a former Death Eater, and the Slytherins from the Dark faction - because she was a _Former_ Death Eater.

The door to the classroom opened and a black haired woman strode into the classroom. "Good morning class," she said. "I am Bellatrix Black and I will be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts this year. I know you had some bad luck with your past teachers, especially your last one. Since your current DADA books are useful only for producing victims for Death Eater revels, I have something for you." Bella flicked her wand and books flew from a shelf to the students desks.

Instead of one book on each child's desk, there were four.

"The first book is your replacement fifth year DADA book," Bellatrix said. "The second is a book on dangerous magical creatures that you might encounter, some useful spells that can help you deal with them and some general information on them. The third one is a book of general spells that you can use to defend yourselves. And the last one is a guide on what to do in dangerous situations."

"What kind of dangerous situations?" Granger asked.

"All kinds of situations," the professor replied with a pleasant smile. "From encountering a magical creature to your home being attacked by Death Eaters."

"But aren't all the Death Eaters in Azkaban?" a blond Gryffindor girl asked.

"No," Bellatrix replied. "While there are a few Death Eaters in Azkaban, most of them bribed their way out of prison. Now that Voldemort was revived, it is only a matter of time until the war starts again."

"But the minister said it was a lie..." the girl protested.

"The ministry is corrupt and useless," the professor replied casually. Other people would not have dared to say what Bella said. Those who were too outspoken against the ministry and lacked the power to defend themselves invariably found their way to a short vacation entertaining the dementors of Azkaban. But Bella was not a nobody whose imprisonment would be little more than formality. She was part of the Gray faction who had the influence to protect her. She could say anything she pleased and it was about time for the Hogwarts students to know what they could expect from the future.

Granger gaped at the teacher. She didn't understand how a teacher could say such things.

"I will not lie to you," professor Black said. "There is a high chance that many of you will suffer from the coming war. As your defense teacher, it is my duty to help, prepare and advise you the best I can. This is why I told you about Voldemort and the upcoming war."

The students were so surprised by her words that they barely flinched at Voldemort's name.

"Before we begin our first lesson, you must first understand why and from whom you need to be able to defend yourselves. The power in Wizarding Britain is split among five factions."

"First," she begun, "we have the ministry. Theoretically, they are the strongest faction, but practically they are far from it. The biggest problem with them is that most of the ministry officials are weak, stupid and corrupt. In the first war against Voldemort, they had a huge numeric advantage. Even if they outnumbered Voldemort's forces, they still managed to lose the war."

"But we won," Weasley protested.

"Yes, technically that is true," Bellatrix nodded. "But it was only a one in a million fluke that made it so. It is easy to see how incompetent they are if two babies did what they couldn't. The biggest problem is that now, there are fewer aurors than before the first war. There are two main reasons for this. First is that the ministry didn't want to hire more aurors. Second, is professor Snape." Bellatrix nodded at the surprised class. "To become an auror, healer or a few other professions, you need a NEWT in potions. Since Snape became the potion teacher at Hogwarts, the number of students graduates with NEWTs in potions dropped significantly: in Slytherin by 18 percent; in Ravenclaw by 14 percent; in Hufflepuff by 37 percent and in Gryffindor by a staggering 73 percent. Another reason for the decline in auror numbers is the sub-par defense classes. For these reasons and others, the ministry will have a hard time in dealing with the Death Eaters."

"The second faction is Dumbledore's Light side. The problem with them is that even if they had the power to deal with Voldemort, they do not have the willingness to do what is necessary."

"The third side is the Gray faction. Unlike the Light faction, they have well trained forces. For more than a year, they have been preparing to defend themselves."

"The fourth side is Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Many of them are common thugs, but some of them are very powerful."

"The last side is the neutrals, and the various magical creatures. When war comes, things will be bad."

"But isn't it four against one?" Granger asked.

"Not exactly," Bellatrix replied. "Thankfully, since the gray faction rose to power, some of the abusive legislation that made so many non-humans join Voldemort, is gone. However, that doesn't mean that all of them will join against Voldemort. Most will stay neutral, but some will join him. In the last war, the ministry was practically in Voldemort's control. It is not unreasonable to consider the possibility that the ministry will submit to him, willingly or unwillingly."

Bellatrix gave a small shrug and continued. "What this means is that this will probably be a bloody war. It would be foolish for any of you to expect being saved by the ministry, especially if you are not a pureblood."

"Pureblood?" Granger asked.

"Indeed," Bellatrix nodded. "Generally, half-bloods and muggleborns are considered second class citizens. In the last war, the ministry started to fight against the Death Eaters only after they begun to attack purebloods. Before that, they only cleaned after the Death Eater revels, protecting the statute of secrecy."

"That's not true," Granger protested. "I read all about the war and..."

"Unfortunately, it is quite true," Bellatrix said. "What you read about the "valiant fight" is nothing more than propaganda, The ministry is mainly interested in purebloods."

"But..."

"The mudblood really had ambitions above her station," Draco Malfoy said softly, but loud enough to carry to the girl's seat.

"I heard that, Mr. Malfoy," Bellatrix said. "Fifty points from Slytherin and detention for a week."

"But I didn't do anything," Malfoy protested.

"And that's ten more points from Slytherin and another week of detention for talking back, Mr. Malfoy."

Malfoy glowered at his aunt, but said nothing.

"Mr. Malfoy, I am not your potion teacher to blatantly ignore what you say or do. While you are in my class, you will behave accordingly. Is that understood?"

"Yes, professor Black," Malfoy ground out.

Bellatrix stared at the blond boy for a few seconds before raising an eyebrow. "Is there something you wish to say, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Yes," Malfoy snarled.

"Then by all means," the professor said with a shrug, "go ahead."

"I don't see why you would care so much about the mu ... Granger. After all, before your betrayal, you were known as the Dark Lord's most trusted servant." Malfoy grimaced a bit at his words. He couldn't understand why a pureblood like Bellatrix Black would betray the Dark Lord. "I'm sure you did worse things than name calling while in his service."

Bellatrix blinked in surprise. "Yes that is quite true, Mr. Malfoy," she said. "I did far worse things. I have killed and tortured a lot of people."

Many of the students shuddered in fear at her casual words. While logically they knew that their professor had done a lot of bad things, until this moment, most of them couldn't wrap their mind around the fact that the woman in front of them was actually the same woman that was used as some kind of boogieman to scare naughty children. Before the trial that declared her innocent, she was seen as the most evil and terrifying witch after the Dark Lord himself. Still, when she did all those things, she wasn't in control of her own body and mind. Then again, judging by the fond smile of reminiscence plastered on her face, maybe she was.

Bellatrix shrugged her shoulders. "I am not pleased by the idea of having the Death Eater ranks filled with Hogwarts graduates. This is why I punished you. Young Draco, you may think that becoming a Death Eater is something to wish for. It is not. Some of you had your heads filled by Death Eater propaganda. Frankly, it is a little surprising when you take into consideration the fact that Slytherins carry the most influence in the Death Eater ranks. Being a Slytherin stands for ambition and cunning, not depravity, stupidity and submission to the will of another."

Bellatrix begun to pace around the class. "It would be in your best interest to take heed to my words. I did not choose to become a Death Eater. When I was as young as you, I had no wish to become that ... thing's slave. Surprisingly, most of those who were marked by Voldemort did it willingly. But had they known what they were getting themselves into, most would not have taken the mark."

The woman stopped from her pacing and stared at Draco, who had a disbelieving look on his face. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy. You may not believe me, but I am not lying. I am sure that even your father regretted it."

"My father is not a Death Eater," Malfoy said automatically. "He was under the Imperius."

"Yes, of course he was," the former Death Eater replied. "Do you know how hard it is to keep someone under both the Imperius and the pain curse?"

Malfoy shook his head.

"Well, take it from someone who is familiar with the experience from both ends. It is very difficult. Voldemort could do it, so could the Inner Circle in which both I and your father belonged. However even if it is possible, it is quite difficult, especially when the victim is magically strong. True, the Dark Mark allows Voldemort quite a bit of control over his slaves, but the Imperius is mainly useless for widespread mind control like the ministry says. True there was heavy use of the curse, but nowhere near as much as it was said. What is attributed to the curse is actually a combination of many factors: like corruption, incompetence, use of mind control potions, blackmail, infiltration and a dozen more things. Mainly, the curse was used in revels. Your father in particular is quite fond of it. He likes to torture whole families. First, he uses the Imperius on the father, who is made to torture and ra ..."

"Bella!" Harry hissed at the woman.

Bellatrix shut her mouth in chagrin. "I'm sorry about that, class. I got a little carried away. Anyway, torture is quite central to the life of a Death Eater. They live in a twisted parody of the law of the jungle - that the strong prey on the weak. Or in our case, the strong torture the weak. This applies to more than what the Death Eaters do to muggles, half-bloods, purebloods or, even small cuddly animals. This also applies within the Death Eater ranks. Senseless brutality is a fact of life. Voldemort, is a heavy user of the torture curse. And he didn't use it only on those who failed him. Even if one wanted to leave the Death Eaters, it is very hard. Using the Dark Mark, Voldemort can track or torture any of his Death Eaters."

"If that were so," Malfoy said, "He would have punished you for your betrayal."

Bellatrix showed her arm to the class. "I no longer have the Dark Mark," she said. "The Lord of Shadows is old, powerful and has great knowledge of long forgotten magic. He was able to destroy the mark."

It was not old, forgotten magic that allowed the Potter twins to destroy the Dark Mark, but the intimate knowledge they got from Voldemort. Since they knew how he made the Dark Mark, they figured out a relatively safe way to destroy it.

"If you truly enjoy torturing small animals and children; if you want to be Voldemort's house-elf; and if you are delusional enough to want to kill "the muggle filth" while conveniently ignoring the fact that Voldemort is actually a half-blood, then by all means let him brand you like a muggle animal."

"If you want to survive, you must be able to defend yourselves. What you choose to do with the knowledge I impart, is up to you. Whether you decide to join the ministry to try and salvage or destroy its dieing, sickly carcass is up to you. You can join Dumbledore's valiant fight; you can join Voldemort; you can join the Gray faction or you can join no one. You can choose to do nothing and hope for the best or you can prepare yourselves. You can protect your loved ones, or you can watch them be tortured, raped and murdered. You can fight, hide or wait like a sheep. You can do as you wish. I will teach you to the best of my abilities. Therefore, in addition to the DADA class, I have opened a dueling club. If you wish to join it, the first meeting will be this Saturday. One last thing," Bellatrix said to her class. "Not many of you will be able to learn to fight. Some people are just not cut for it for various reasons. But even if you can't fight, you can still do something to protect yourselves. You can ward your home; you can have an escape route; you can even plant magical plants around your house and have magical creatures to defend you or delay your attackers. There are hundreds of ways you increase your chances of survival."

"Now," the black haired woman said, I believe it is time for some practical lessons..."

**-x-x-x-**

After the class, Neville did not rise from his chair with his two friends.

Harry and Lucy waited at the door to see what would happen. So did Weasley and Granger.

"Mr. Longbottom," Bellatrix said.

Neville rose from his chair and approached the woman who tortured his parents, and if the Potters were to be believed, the woman who saved his life. "Black."

"Longbottom," Bellatrix answered.

The two stared at each other for a long uncomfortable moment. The two Gryffindors that were waiting for Neville tried to go towards Neville, but they felt two hands on their shoulders.

"No," Harry said.

"Let's see what happens first," Lucy continued. "Sooner or later, these two will meet again."

"And maybe we won't be there to stop them," Harry finished.

The two Gryffindors nodded grudgingly and stepped back.

"I hate you," Neville said. "You tortured my parents. For that, I will never forgive you."

"Believe it or not, Mr. Longbottom, I do not care."

Behind Neville, Granger's mouth opened in shock. "Isn't she going to apologize?"

Neville's face betrayed no emotion, but his hand twitched toward his wand. "Harry and Lucy said you saved my life."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It was my form of rebellion."

"That's it?" Neville asked. "You just did it because..."

"On a whim," Bellatrix finished. "Any more questions?"

"My parents ... did you take pleasure in their torture?"

"Yes, Mr. Longbottom."

"Are you sorry?"

Bellatrix glanced at her masters, before returning her eyes to her student. "No, Mr. Longbottom, I am not."

Neville nodded emotionlessly and stared in her eyes. "One day, I will kill the Lestranges."

"And do you consider me a Lestrange, or a Black?"

"If you never stand in my way ... then Professor Black."

"That is fortunate," Bellatrix said.

As Neville turned to go, Bellatrix summoned a stack of books. "Mr. Longbottom," she said as she levitated the books towards Neville. Perhaps you will find some use for these."

**-x-x-x-**

"Looks like he won't be too troublesome," Harry said after the Gryffindor trio left.

Raising privacy wards around them, Harry smiled at the new professor. "That was very good," he said.

Bellatrix knelt at his feat. "Thank you, my Master."

Lucy walked behind the woman, trailing her fingers on her back. "Continue like this with the other classes."

"Yes, Mistress."

"When Dumbledore starts to whine, tell him to talk to Narcissa."

"See how much you can antagonize Snape. If he attacks you physically or mentally, you can retaliate with deadly force."

"We still don't know who Snape really works for," Harry continued. "When Lucy used her power on him, she was unable to break his most innermost thoughts. Still, we found out enough. It was Snape who told Voldemort the first part of the prophecy. He only betrayed his master because he wanted our mother for himself."

Lucy kneeled behind Bellatrix. "But he was more than happy if James Potter's spawn died with their father. Any hard time we give to our enemies is good."

Harry kneeled in front of Bellatrix. "However, annoying them comes second to your safety. Be careful around Snape and Dumbledore." Harry and Lucy gave a kiss to Bellatrix's neck. "If they attack you, you need only to hold on until help arrive."

"Yes!"

**-x-x-x-**

One week later, Bellatrix came to the teacher's meeting room, for her first staff meeting.

Once every teacher was present, Dumbledore smiled grandfatherly at his audience. "Well, we had quite an interesting week. I believe the unfortunate situation with Madam Umbridge was our first topic."

"I have a better topic," Snape snarled at Dumbledore. "It's the madwoman who replaced that toad."

"Severus," Dumbledore admonished, "there's no need for insults. We are all teachers, and we should act like it."

"Yes, Headmaster," Snape said. "I'm sorry, but ... Ms. Black is acting like a lunatic. I have received several complaints from my students. She is not only assigning unfair detentions and point deductions, but she is also insulting my students."

Bellatrix arched an eyebrow. "I never insulted any of your students, Snape. But if you are referring to the things I said to your junior Death Eater club, then I never said a lie. It was the honest truth. What I said, I personally witnessed. I think it's a good idea for the kids to really know what you and your friends are capable of. Perhaps if they know what they can expect from Voldemort, they'll have a chance at a better life. After all don't they deserve a chance at a life free of monsters like ..." Bellatrix stared pointedly at Snape's arm, "Voldemort and his Death Eaters?"

Before Snape could explode, the Gryffindor head of house cleared her throat. "I believe we have a worse problem than this."

"Oh, like what?" Dumbledore asked.

"Ms. Black," the transfiguration professor said stiffly, "we here at Hogwarts are not allowed to make politics. We are teachers, not politicians."

"If you are referring to my calling the ministry as they truly are," then I'm afraid I will have to repeat myself. I only told the honest truth."

"This honest truth will see you thrown in Azkaban," Snape snarled.

"I very much doubt it," Bellatrix replied. "The ministry can't afford to antagonize the Gray faction and the Lord of Shadows. They need us more than we need them. The same applies to you, Dumbledore. If you think you and your precious Fudge can stop Voldemort, then you are as delusional as you look. After all, both of us know that you don't stand a chance to defeat Voldemort by yourself. You keep getting old, while Voldemort grows stronger."

At least, that was what Bellatrix hoped. Dumbledore knew of ways to increase ones lifespan. It was hard to believe that Dumbledore delayed his, "next great adventure," but everything was possible. Extending one's lifespan was not that uncommon. Virtually every Dark Lord tried to find a way to immortality. While not all of them achieved it, most of them could achieve a form of proto-immortality through various rituals. If Dumbledore possessed a form of immortality like Voldemort did, and if Dumbledore's form was better than Voldemort's, then this raised all sorts of questions.

If they pushed and prodded at Dumbledore long enough, then the man would make a mistake.

"Because of your incompetence," Bellatrix continued, "Voldemort almost won the first war." And now that you are not the only wizard alive who is able to fight Voldemort on equal terms, it is time to let others do the job you so abysmally failed at. Since until the Lord of Shadows came you had the most power - both politically and magically, the fault lays squarely at your feet."

Dumbledore shook his head in disappointment at her words, while the other teachers were stunned that Bellatrix dared to talk to "The Greatest Wizard Alive" the way she did.

"I will continue to teach as I please. If you disagree, then you're free to talk with my sister. I am sure she'll find plenty of reasons why you can't afford to do anything. Still, I wonder why you are so against me."

"Because you're blatantly trying to recruit Hogwarts students into your faction," Snape snarled.

"So what?" Bellatrix asked. "Hate the competition to your master?"

**-x-x-x-**

After Bellatrix got out of the meeting, she met with the twins.

"So, how was it?" Harry asked.

"As expected."

"Lucy nodded. "Yes, they can't do anything about our heavy handedness."

"Still, if Dumbledore really wanted to get rid of me, he could probably do it."

"True," Harry nodded. "But to do it, he would have to be far too blatant with his use of power. It could turn our relation from animosity into hostile."

Lucy nodded. "And if he does, it will still be to our advantage. If he starts the battle, we'll be free to fight back."

"And we have the advantage at fighting, while he is better at secrets and manipulation."

"Still, we keep eroding at his strength. I am worried at what will happen when the dam will snap."

"Who knows," Harry shrugged. "In any case, I will not complain. His actions are what allowed us to rise to power so fast. If he keeps pretending to be incompetent, more power to us."

"And when or if he shows his true colors..."

'It will still be an advantage...'

'For we will know what he is...'

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's Notes**: Well... I finally updated. Sorry for the long delay.

_**Like always, reviews are much appreciated.**_

Published: September 29, 2009.

-voider-

**-x-x-x-**


	18. Christmas and Better than a Horcrux

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 18.**

**Fifth year.**

**Christmas and Better than a Horcrux.**

**-x-x-x-**

A disguised Nymphadora Tonks was wondering the streets of Knockturn alley. Dumbledore put her on surveillance duty. She was to keep an eye on the Death Eaters that frequented the Alley.

She felt something wash over her and she recognized what it was: anti-portkey and anti-apparition wards. Feeling a spell from behind her, the metamorph threw herself to the side, barely missing a stunner shot at her back. At the same time, she used the pendant on her chest to call for help.

Tonks was about to be hit by another spell, but she quickly rolled and erected a shield that stopped it.

Turning around, she saw a cloaked figure. Tonks fired a bone-breaking curse at it, but the spell was side stepped with ease.

In retaliation, the figure fired a spell Tonks couldn't recognize, followed by a Petrificus Totalus and a stunner.

The first spell crashed and broke Tonks' shield. She tried to dodge the second.

She succeeded, but she fell prey to the last spell that slammed straight into her chest.

Tonks fell down and her attacker approached her slowly.

When the figure was only a few steps from the metamorph, she suddenly slashed her wand at her enemy. A wide slashing curse slammed into her attacker, who had somehow managed to erect a shield fast enough and to escape being carved in two. However, the shield was hastily made, and a part of the spell hit the attacker.

Tonks took advantage of the reprieve, attacking the surprised figure. But whatever she threw at it, she was unable to defeat it, despite the deep gash it had across its chest.

It did not take long for the attacker to take charge of the fight once again.

Unable to keep pace with her assailant, Tonks changed strategies and dove behind a wall.

Two spells impacted the wall Tonks was hiding behind and the auror decided to try transfiguration. She waved her wand to transfigure two dog-like statues and sent them to distract her attacker.

The auror left the safety of the wall she was hiding behind and prepared to fire at her attacker.

**-x-x-x-**

Harry was about to sit down to eat his breakfast when an owl landed in front of him. He took the letter and gave the owl a treat.

Opening the letter, he began to read. Lucy brushed her mind with his and read it through him.

'This is troubling,' Harry said to his sister on their private link, after he finished reading the complete report.

'Yes. It is too risky to let her continue in the Order. Tonks knows too much.'

'We can not allow her to fall into enemy hands,' Harry agreed.

'We can't know who was responsible for this. It's possible she was spotted by someone. It's possible that Snape told Voldemort about Tonks' mission...'

'But it's also possible that it was Dumbledore. Maybe he wanted to interrogate her.'

'If that were so, why didn't he try to do something to us, here at Hogwarts?'

'Perhaps he knows that we would have an advantage here?' Harry guessed. 'We have more control over Hogwarts' wards than he does. If he knows about it, he wouldn't risk a confrontation. He's too cautious for that.'

'Then why didn't he call Tonks for a private meeting?' Lucy asked. 'He wouldn't have any problems to subdue her.'

'Maybe he knows about the necklaces? Or maybe he wants to have plausible deniability? If she disappeared at an Order meeting, we'd know he had something to do with it.'

'We pull her out of the Order.'

'Yes,' Harry agreed. 'We can't risk anything at this early stage. If it weren't for her protections, Tonks would have been captured. From what she described, the attacker was skilled. Probably even on Bella's level. If he had fought to kill, she wouldn't have stood a chance.'

'Fortunately they wanted her alive. I wonder though... who was the attacker?'

'Whoever it was, he, she or it, didn't want to even risk a defeat. The moment our own people arrived to help Tonks, the attacker retreated.'

**-x-x-x-**

It was towards the end of their school term that the twins felt a twinge from their scars... or better said, what was left from them. They had destroyed the Horcrux part of the scar, but they had kept a very small part of what remained. It resulted in a containable (and contained) connection to Voldemort. They rarely felt anything from it, but now, as Harry and Lucy slept, they felt something from Voldemort.

The Dark Lord was connected to his familiar who was about to attack someone.

'That's Arthur Weasley.'

'And if I am not mistaken ... that is the ministry.'

'Pity it is Ginny's father.'

The twins waited for the vision to end. They awoke and Harry grabbed his necklace to send a message to Amelia.

**-x-x-x-**

It was two hours later that one of their house-elves appeared in front of them.

"Masters," the house-elf said, "Dumbledore sent a message by a Hogwarts house-elf. He is asking for mistress Ginny. Her Arthur Weasley is sick and she is to go to him."

"Thank you." The elf popped away and Harry smiled reassuringly at Ginny. "We should go," he said to the already dressed girl.

"Don't worry. Amelia said he's fine," Lucy said.

When Ginny and the twins entered Dumbledore's office, the old man smiled sadly at Ginny. "Ah, miss Weasley. I am afraid I have some bad news for you." Her three brothers were already there, looking sick with worry. "Your father was attacked. He is currently at St. Mungo's under treatment. I have arranged for you and your brothers to go there."

"Thank you, headmaster."

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Potter," Dumbledore said to the twins, "you may return to your quarters."

"That's not necessary," Harry replied. "We'll go with Ginny."

"There's no need to inconvenience yourselves."

Ron glared at the twins. "Yeah, there's no need to come. This is Weasley family business. You're not welcomed!"

"There's no problem, headmaster," Harry said, ignoring Ron. "Ginny, Fred and George are our friends. We'd like to be there to offer our support."

"Potter!" Ron shouted. "Bugger off. It'd be better if..."

One of the Weasley twins silenced Ron. "Thanks guys. You're welcome to come."

Dumbledore stared at the twins before nodding grandfatherly. "Very well. You may accompany miss Weasley if you wish."

Dumbledore removed the silencing spell on Ron. "Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore motioned towards the bowl of floo powder. "Please go ahead."

After Ron disappeared in a flash of green fire, the Weasley twins went next. Lucy followed, then Ginny. Harry grabbed the floo powder and threw it in the fire. With a last wary glance towards the grandfatherly figure of the headmaster and a shout of, "St. Mungo's!" he too disappeared.

Once Dumbledore was at Wizarding hospital, he saw that there were over a dozen figures around them. Dumbledore glanced at them until he caught sight of Amelia Bones. "Amelia," he nodded affably.

"Dumbledore," the woman nodded stiffly.

"May I ask why you are here?"

"I am the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Mr. Weasley was injured, so I came to ensure his protection and investigate his attack."

"Madam Bones, I doubt you would have needed to come here personally to do that."

Madam Bones inclined her head. "And you? What brought you here, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at Amelia. "I am here with my students."

Bones nodded stiffly and half her bodyguards moved forward and behind, leading them all towards Arthur Weasley's room.

"Are all these bodyguards really necessary?" Dumbledore asked as he walked side by side with Bones.

"Of course it is. After all, I am not like you and Riddle."

"Oh?"

"Yes, Albus. You may be able to play around with him, but the rest of us mortals have to take precautions."

"What about your Lord of Shadows?" Dumbledore asked.

"What about him?"

"Does he need bodyguards? Or is he strong enough to not need them?"

Bones' lips twitched. "Oh, I don't think he has any need for them."

"I see," Dumbledore nodded sagely. "You know, I have wanted to meet him since I heard of his existence."

"I'm afraid you're out of luck. He rarely goes out. Only the Potter twins and Narcissa see him regularly."

"I see. Perhaps one day we will meet. He might be of great help in our fight against the Dark."

"He already is," Bones said. "Thanks to him and the Gray Faction, the Wizarding world is far more secure than in the last war. We stopped some of those awful laws that people like Dolores Umbridge pushed for. We have more aurors and auror trainees. Most of the magical creatures are leaning toward our side. Many purebloods came to our side. All of this is thanks to him. The only thing that is missing is replacing Fudge with someone who isn't a Death Eater or in their pockets. By the way, are you still against getting rid of Fudge?"

"I am afraid we can not afford that risk. He is a known variable. The one who would replace him might be far worse than him."

"Rubbish. Narcissa would make a splendid minister. If both of us supported her, she would certainly win."

"Perhaps, but perhaps not." Dumbledore gave her his wise grandfatherly look and ended their conversation. "Molly dear," he said to the woman waiting outside Arthur's room. "How is he?"

The woman swept her children in a hug before answering. "He's sleeping now, but the healers said that he will recover fully."

"That is good to hear."

"Can we see him?" Ginny asked.

Molly nodded and the Weasley family entered Arthur's room. After they finished their visit, Dumbledore gave his farewells to Molly. "Mr. Potter, Ms. Potter, will you come back to Hogwarts with me?"

"We'll wait for Ginny," Lucy said.

"Very well," Dumbledore agreed.

Harry stared at Dumbledore as he walked away. 'That was...'

'Too easy,' Lucy finished his thought.

'Yeah. None of us is to be alone and unprotected in his presence.' Harry concentrated on his necklace to send a message to Daphne for her and the girls to stay away from Dumbledore until they returned to the castle.

'I think he wanted us to stay back so he would be able to have Ginny alone.'

'Interrogation,'

'Like Tonks.'

'We must be careful.'

'I think we should kill him,' Lucy said.

'Can we? And even if we could, would he stay that way? And if we couldn't ... he'd be even more dangerous.'

'But we'd at least know how to deal with him. As we are now, can we really even risk fighting along him against Voldemort? Will he stab us in the back?'

'I don't know,' Harry replied. 'But we can not afford to kill the Light Lord without reason.'

'I know. It's just that he drives me to the edge. We don't know if he's pure evil, Greater Good through lesser evil, or just crazy.'

**-x-x-x-**

On the Christmas holiday, Harry was sitting between Lucy and Narcissa. Before him, there were other chairs and couches filled by the girls and women he considered his mates. "Tonight, we will perform an important ritual. We've been working on it for some time and we are now ready."

"As you know," Lucy continued, "Voldemort was able to become immortal through the use of several Horcruxes. Immortality is not that hard to obtain. There are many methods to go about it and Voldemort chose one of the worst ones."

"True, genuine immortality is practically impossible. Extending your life by a few decades, hundreds of years or indefinitely can all be considered as a form of immortality. However, just because you have the ability to live forever, that doesn't also mean that you will. Even gods can be killed. There is more than one way, degree or type of immortality. The most basic form is the Wizarding painting."

"Many would debate it," Lucy continued, "but in reality, it can be considered a minor form of immortality. A Wizarding photo can be enchanted with the memories and personality of a person. It is not the same entity as the original, but even if it is a copy, it is better than nothing."

"Next, we have ghosts," Harry said. "Again, not even close to a true form of immortality. Ghosts are a form of soul magic. They are echoes of the true form. They are a very small piece of a soul that have memories of the original. However, their personality is ... frozen. Generally, their capacity for growth is ... small."

"There are also rituals that can increase your lifespan. There are rituals to decrease ones' age. There is the Stone we have in our possession that makes such things easier. These are relatively easy to perform especially if you have the Stone and a great deal of magical power at your disposal."

"There is the possibility of becoming a vampire or other immortal magical creature," Harry added. "Not the best option for a witch or a wizard, since with the transformation into another species, not only is there the possibility of death, but there is also a huge possibility of losing most or even all of the original magical abilities."

"But aren't you part vampire?" Luna asked dreamily.

"Yes," Harry nodded. "But we don't really know how we became like this. When I killed my... relatives, I believe I unconsciously performed a type of magical ritual that changed us from a typical witch and wizard. However, most other similar rituals aren't very successful. Many of them are like the vampire transformations where there is a ninety percent chance of failure."

"That brings us to our next category." Lucy added, "There are rituals that can grant certain inhuman abilities like regeneration, magic resistance or increased life expectancy that belong to other creatures. Voldemort performed quite a few such rituals - far more than all of us put together."

"And then, there is soul magic," Harry said. "There is more than one way to go about it. The first one is the brute, forced approach. You create a horcrux. To do that, you tear up a portion of your soul and put it in a vessel. The advantage is that it is a relatively simple thing to do and it has immediate results."

"The problem here, is that tearing up your soul is not very healthy. A soul is something like millions or even billions of threads that represent, bind and connect the different parts that make us who we are. When you tear a piece of your soul and put it in a vessel, that portion of the soul is still connected with the rest of the soul, though it is a looser connection. The horcrux is anchored to this realm and the soul is anchored not only to its body but to the horcrux as well. So when the original body dies, the soul is still chained by the Horcrux. The result is a shade. With the necessary ritual, you can create a body for the shade."

"This may sound like a efficient way to remain alive, but there are serious problems with the ritual of creating a Horcrux. The first one is a moral one. Since the Horcrux is a very Dark ritual, the only known way to create one is to murder someone in cold blood and use that murder to tear away a part of your soul. Second, a torn soul often results in madness. The loss a part of the soul also leads to a minor loss of power, memories, intelligence, mental stability and so on. A soul has a lot of redundancy, so the loss is not too major. Voldemort performed rituals to overcome most of these weaknesses, but it isn't something that can be shrugged off. It could be said that it is something like... ripping off your lung and an arm."

"Actually," Lucy added, "if we want to be more exact in our comparison, it would be more like destroying every tenth cell in your body."

"And a soul can not heal," Alicia said.

"Actually, it can," Lucy said. "However, it would be extremely difficult to heal something like the damage caused by the creation of a Horcrux."

"The other approach to soul magic is less damaging. It is what we glimpsed in Dumbledore's mind. It is the ability of different souls to link with other souls. It is because of these links that mothers can sometimes feel when their children are in danger. Bonds of love and family link our souls together."

"If that were so, wouldn't everyone be immortal?" Alicia asked.

"No. These bonds can be weaker like the bond between two friends or they can be the most strongest of bonds - the bond between twins or the familiar bond. While quite strong, they are nowhere enough to the strength of the connection between a soul and its' horcrux."

"Then, how can this help us?

"It can help us because bonds can grow," Lucy answered. "  
"They can grow on their own. After all, a soul is more than a rigid thing. Even the damage produced by a horcrux could be healed..."

"At least, that is the theory," Harry added. "Though I doubt it is possible. We certainly can't. I doubt Voldemort can. And Dumbledore... I doubt he needs it. The problem is that the result of a Horcrux is ... unnatural. It is a scar. And scars are hard to heal."

"On the other hand, what we plan to do is more natural - like a natural birth. Even if there are only a few threads that link two souls together, they can be encouraged to grow. Harry and I performed a more basic ritual than the one we prepared with our familiars, and the master-familiar bond strengthened noticeably."

"We are unsure of the time it will take for the links to be strong enough to anchor us to each other, but if we all perform the ritual together, we will all have fifteen connections instead of one. That means that the time needed will be significantly shorter."

"If that is so, shouldn't we use more people?"

"Not really, there is a certain strain to what will happen. More people will mean more strain and we are already too close to the limit. There is also a needed component for this to work."

"Love and trust. After all, this is a Light ritual. This is what separates it from a horcrux. The link we will create will grow due to the relation between us. It is natural and it needs time to grow."

"A Dark Lord like Voldemort can not have what we have between us. He can not create a strong, natural link. Even with encouragement, it isn't in his nature to have such a connection to someone else."

"The ritual only encourages growth. It can not create a link from nothing."

"Are we sure this will truly work?" Daphne asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I am wondering if anything besides minor forms of immortality is truly possible. Why aren't there immortals out there? The Horcrux ritual is thousands of years old. So, how come we don't know of anyone who managed to do it; that is, no one besides Voldemort."

"That is a good question," Harry answered.

"There are immortals," Lucy said. "Vampires, phoenixes and other magical creatures. Nicolas and Pernelle Flamel lived for hundreds of years."

Daphne nodded. "Yes, but besides them, there's no one. I mean if immortality is really possible, shouldn't it be more common?"

"Perhaps it is," Harry said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you're right. There should me more than two people."

"And yet, there are not," Lucy continued.

"Perhaps they are hiding," Luciella said.

"What do you mean?"

"Ancient vampires are rarely seen even by our kind," Alicia's Second answered. "Those who interact too much with more than a very small number of trusted people, end up dead. The more isolated from the world they are, the safer they are."

"You mean that sooner or later, all immortals get themselves killed off if they are not careful enough."

"Yes. And sometimes, even ancient vampires lose the will to continue living, and choose to die."

"And for wizards, the danger would be far greater," Lucy nodded. "If anyone knew that we had the Stone, we'd be at risk. Everyone would want it. Similarly, if it was known that someone possessed some type of immortality, every Dark wizards and even Light ones would do anything to get to it."

"And yet, the Flamels were able to protect it for centuries," Narcissa pointed out.

"That is, until they gave it to Dumbledore for safekeeping," Lucy scoffed. "Still have no idea why they did that. After all, if they were able to protect it for centuries, why would a weakened, incorporeal Voldemort be any danger to them?"

"My guess is that it was a trap," Harry said.

"Still, it was pretty stupid for them to give up their Stone like that."

"Even if we achieve some form of immortality, we'll still have to be careful."

"Yes. I wonder though if they really died. Maybe they expected for the Stone to be destroyed. Maybe they just used it's destruction to frame their death and start over."

"Anonymous."

**-x-x-x-**

Hours later, the twins were collapsed in the center of a ritual circle.

Narcissa and Bella, Alicia and her Second Luciella, Tonks, Ginny, Luna, Daphne, Tracy, Susan, Hannah, Su Li, Gabby and Fleur were surrounding them.

They were all naked and only slightly tired after the completion of the ritual.

"I would have thought we'd be more tired than this," Narcissa said.

"Yes," Harry nodded. Glancing at the naked forms that were surrounding him, he smirked. "It would have been such a pity if that were so."

Narcissa raised an elegant eyebrow. "May I ask why?"

"Because if it were, being surrounded by fifteen naked females and not being able to do anything about it would have been such a waste."

"After all, we performed this ritual to be closer together," Lucy added.

"Is an orgy going to strengthen the connection between us?" Luna asked.

"I doubt it," Lucy said.

"So we're not going to have an orgy?" Luna asked in disappointment.

"Of course we are," Harry said.

"After all, even if it won't help, it certainly won't do any harm."

Luna moved toward the twins and planted herself on Harry's lap. "Marry Christmas, then," she said.

**-x-x-x-**

While the Potter twins were enjoying the company of their mates, Lord Voldemort had just finished giving Lucius Malfoy a mission.

"I hope he won't disappoint me," the Dark Lord hissed.

"Of course not, my Lord."

"Good. Because if he fails, you might find yourself without an heir." Voldemort glanced down Malfoy's body where Ginny Weasley destroyed the Death Eater's capacity to procreate. "And since your unfortunate accident last year, you can't make another one."

"He will not fail," Lucius swore.

Voldemort dismissed Malfoy, but he stopped him before he was about to exit the room.

"Oh, Lucius. I almost forgot."

Malfoy turned around and prepared himself for the torture curse. "Yes, my Lord?"

"Marry Christmas."

Malfoy blinked in confusion. "Really?" he blurted out.

"No," Voldemort smirked. "Crucio."

**-x-x-x-**

Two old men and an old woman were sitting around a small table in a cheerful, brightly colored room.

The first old man was savoring a cookie. "I must say, that your lemon cookies are as good as always."

"Ah, you flatter me, Albus my boy," the woman said with a pleased smile.

"It is the honest truth."

The second man waited for Albus Dumbledore to finish his cookie. "So, did you managed to find out anything about them?" he asked.

Dumbledore sighed. "Unfortunately, as you well know, getting anything from them is ... difficult."

"Yes. It is problematic. We need information on the Lord of Shadows, but we also need to not antagonize his faction."

"Merlin knows the powers he has," the woman said.

"I am beginning to worry about the rest of his faction. They are very well organized and they are slowly gaining power. When Voldemort finally shows his hands, I'm afraid that they'll gain too much power."

"Well, we'll have to do something about that," the woman said.

Dumbledore nodded and began to eat another cookie.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's Notes**: On the Deathly Hallows. There are no DH in my story. Harry and Lucy will have to use something else to defeat their enemies.

Next chapter, we'll have a bit of a magical battle. It will be something that I've planned for a while.

I know there are a few clichés in my story. Frankly, most of them I used, because I didn't like how (some) other people used them and I wanted to put my own spin on it. Next chapter we'll see an amusing use (or failure) for such a cliché. Well... maybe it won't be amusing for some, but I've been waiting for some time to do it.

Published: January 13, 2010.

-voider-

**-x-x-x-**


	19. Death and Betrayal

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 19.**

**Fifth year.**

**Death and Betrayal.**

**-x-x-x-**

Harry and Lucy sat down at the Slytherin table ready to have their breakfast when Daphne looked at them sharply.

Lucy sent a legilimency probe at Daphne and was allowed inside, past the mental shields. 'The food was drugged,' Daphne thought.

Lucy nodded at the girl, drew her wand and cast a charm under the table. The girl-who-lived gave a small smile and begun eating. There was a delayed sleeping potion in the food, but they were all immune to it.

'Are you sure you should do that?' Harry silently asked his twin. 'Just because we are immune to it, that doesn't mean we should ignore it.'

'Let's see what happens.'

Harry nodded and begun eating. 'Who do you think it was?' They both glanced around. 'Draco Malfoy?' Harry said.

'Probably.' Lucy directed a mental probe at the Slytherin. Like most Hogwarts students, he had basic occlumency shields, but Lucy was an adept of the art. She could sense his feeling of anticipation and success. 'Very probable,' she added.

Seeing that the twins were eating their drugged food, the rest of the twins circle started eating as well.

After they finished their meal, the twins and the girls headed out. Behind them, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle followed them.

The twins made a corner then waited for Malfoy to approach. As soon as the three boys came face to face with the twins' group, they were stunned and dragged into an abandoned classroom.

Harry put the three boys into a chair, and waked Malfoy. Before the blond boy could recover his senses, Lucy struck with her mind. Malfoy's week mental shield didn't even delay her. As soon as she got into his mind, she searched for the reason Malfoy tried to drug them. When she found it, she stopped her mental attack and Harry stunned the boy again.

"He has orders from Riddle," Lucy explained. "He was to get a vial of our blood."

"We can't let him have that," Daphne said. "Who knows what someone like Voldemort could do with it."

"True," Lucy nodded, "though it's probable that he wants it to get to the prophecy. Only those mentioned in the prophecy can get it from the Hall of Prophecies."

"Wouldn't he use his own blood if there was a way to use his blood for that?" Ginny asked. "Why would he want your blood?"

"It's probably because his blood is not his own," Harry said. "His true body was destroyed. His blood is not his own. It is a replacement, so it would be difficult to use it."

"But our blood could be easily used."

"What are we going to do?" Daphne asked.

Harry summoned two vials from Malfoys robes. He gave a shallow cut to Malfoy's hand and filled one of the vials. He healed and repeated the process with Crabbe. "Let's see what will happen."

After Harry finished, Lucy invaded the minds of the three Slytherin boys and modified their memories.

"Are we sure about this?" Susan Bones asked. "Riddle is going to kill Malfoy when whatever plan he has, fails."

"And I should care, why?" Lucy asked.

"Narcissa."

"She already tried to save the stupid boy," Harry said. "We'll try not to kill him."

"But we won't go out of our way to save him," Lucy finished. "Who knows, maybe he'll realize that it isn't very healthy to join the Dark Lord."

All of them stared at the Slytherin in question.

"Nah," Lucy said.

**-x-x-x-**

That night, the twins received a message. Azkaban was under attack.

'Should we not do something about it?' Harry thought.

'Not yet.' Lucy replied. 'Amelia had those loyal to us removed from Azkaban. But soon...' she whispered.

**-x-x-x-**

Months passed and Voldemort was still keeping a low profile.

Harry and Lucy were in the middle of their history exam when they received a message through their necklaces. The Hall of Prophecy was about to be infiltrated.

Harry sent a message to their forces to mobilize, got up and exited the class.

When they arrived to their private rooms, the other girls were already there.

"What happened?" Daphne asked.

"Death Eaters are about to enter the Hall of Prophecies," Lucy explained.

"We're mobilizing our forces," Harry added. "While we deal with this, the rest of you will go back home. Bella, Ginny and Su Li, will come with us."

The mentioned girls smiled, while the rest of the girls nodded grudgingly, knowing that even though they were quite strong and well trained, they had little chance of surviving in a fight with Voldemort. Only Harry and Lucy could rival Voldemort in battle. Bella, Ginny and Su Li, while not on the twins' level, would not instantly die in a fight against the Dark Lord.

**-x-x-x-**

The twins, Ginny, Su Li, Bella, Alicia, two squads of mercenaries and four of vampires port-keyed to the ministry. Somehow, there was no security and they were able to enter the Department of Mysteries without needing Amelia's permit.

As soon as they entered the Hall of Prophecies, the twins stunned two Death Eaters that were standing guard. One of the mercenaries conjured heavy ropes, while another broke their wands. A mercenary and a vampire then took them towards the ministry holding cells.

"Captain," Harry said to the mercenary leader. "Capture the other Death Eaters. Alicia, have two of your squads help them."

"Yes, sir," the mercenary nodded.

"Yes, master," Alicia bowed.

The mercenary gave a sign to his men, who scattered in teams of two. Behind them, two vampire squads followed them.

Just as the mercenaries started to move, there was a maddened scream in the distance.

'That must have been one of the Death Eaters,' Harry thought.

'Voldemort must have really thought he had our blood. He must have tried to use it to get to the prophecy.'

The twins stared at the flashes of spells that lighted the huge Hall.

'They got some of them,' Lucy observed when the spell-fire became slower. Soon, the room fell silent and the mercenaries and vampires returned victorious and levitating their prisoners behind them.

"Mission accomplished," the mercenary leader reported. "Three of the Death Eaters were killed, the rest were captured."

"And your people?"

"No casualties. Just a few scratches."

"Good," Harry said. "Anything else?"

"Yes, sir. When we cornered the last three Death Eaters, one of them shouted at another to call the Dark Lord. Shall we retreat? Or are we staying to confront the Death Eater reinforcements?"

"We're staying," Harry said. "Move your people in positions. Try to keep Riddle's minions off our back until our reinforcements arrive. We'll handle Voldemort until then."

"Yes, sir." The mercenary said before his squads scattered through the Department of Mysteries, only a few of them remaining I the hall of prophecies. At a nod from Alicia, the vampires did the same thing.

Only the twins, Ginny, Su Li, Bella and Alicia remained in the open, waiting to see if the Dark Lord would come.

**-x-x-x-**

It did not take long for Voldemort to enter the Hall of Prophecies with four Death Eaters and six vampires in tow.

Voldemort smiled at them. "I hope you do not mind, but I brought a few people to join us. Most of them are playing with your forces."

Alicia glared at the vampires. "Traitors, she hissed."

"Now, now, I think I put my... stake on them long before you did. The vampires have always been mine. Once I deal with you troublesome children," Voldemort smiled creepily at the Potter twins, "they'll come back to me." He drew his wand, and everyone prepared for battle. "Do not be hasty," the Dark Lord admonished. "I merely wish for us to have a private conversation before we begin our fight. May I?"

Harry nodded grudgingly.

"Excellent." Voldemort cast a few privacy wards around them. "Harry Potter, Lucy Potter." His eyes passed over the other girls and lingered a moment on Bellatrix before returning to the twins. "I wanted to speak with you for a long time."

Lucy narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Speak."

"I have an offer for you," Voldemort said smoothly.

"Let me guess," Harry snorted. "To join you."

"Yes, Harry Potter," Voldemort hissed. "Together, we could rule the world."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Harry answered.

"We can't trust you," Lucy added.

"Harry and Lucy Potter," the Dark Lord chuckled, "do you think you can defeat me?"

Harry shrugged. "Even if we can't, we can keep you occupied for a time."

"You are strong," Lucy said. "But you can't win against us and someone else who is on the same level with you."

"Until now, you were able to do as you pleased. The only one who could stand against you was Dumbledore, but now, there are four more people besides you that are on your level. Not even you can deal with these odds."

"Four," Voldemort chuckled. "Dumbledore, you two... and who would be the fourth? Your Lord of Shadows?"

Harry nodded.

"And why is your precious master not here?" the Dark Lord asked. "I have heard many things of him, but I never saw him. Only rumors. I had thought that he would have accompanied you in such an important battle."

"The Lord of Shadow prefers not to involve himself with the outside world unless there is no other choice."

"Yes, I heard the same thing. I must say that he can't be such a good master if he lets you face me. Leaving untried and untested children face the most powerful Dark Lord in centuries, does not seem something a caring master would do. No matter what, he should have been here, to protect you."

"Perhaps he is," Lucy said.

"Perhaps he is, but I doubt it, foolish girl," Voldemort said looking at the girl-who-lived. For a moment, he was tempted to use legilimency on her, but the thought passed quickly. The girl was as skilled in the mind arts as he was. If he tried to fight her in a mental duel, his troublesome brother would attack him physically. "He has never appeared until now," the Dark Lord continued. "I doubt he'll change that now."

"Perhaps," Harry said. "In any case, I doubt we'll have need of him. Soon, Dumbledore will be here with his Order."

Voldemort stared off into space. "Yes, but it appears that the old man is not in any hurry." Voldemort smiled sinisterly at the Potter twins. "I must admit that your dammed Lord gave me a lot of headaches. He gained many supporters. He interfered in the ministry and in the Wizengamot. He drew most of the vampire clans to him. Even most of the werewolves prefer him to both me and Dumbledore. And it is said that his power is a match to mine and Dumbledore's. But if he never deigns to show his face, it is as if he didn't exist..." Voldemort trailed off at the last word. "Now I see," the Dark Lord smirked.

"See what?" Harry asked.

"We have a conveniently powerful ... creature," the snake-like man sneered. "Someone that is rumored to be so powerful that he even gave me pause. Someone who gave Dumbledore pause. Apparently, the old man is more wary of your master than he is of me or you two. And while Dumbledore and I were concerned with his personal intervention, his political, military and economic power grew. I see now," Voldemort chuckled. "Yes, you two are truly Slytherins. There is no Lord of Shadows," Voldemort deducted. "He is your fabrication, a boogieman to keep your enemies at bay while you grew stronger. And it worked... until now." Voldemort glanced at the twins and their companions, but they didn't give any sign that would support or disprove his guess.

"I must say, you have quite an imagination," Lucy said in an amused tone.

"You have no protector. Join me and together we will rule."

"The answer is still the same," Harry said. "No."

Voldemort looked again into space. "I see our guests have finally getting closer. It is time to entertain them."

"What guests?" Harry asked.

"Why, who else but your precious Headmaster... who doesn't seem to want to interfere just yet. It looks like it's just you foolish children against me," Voldemort sneered.

The Dark Lord dropped his anti-listening wards and pointed his wand at the Potter twins. He glanced at his Death eaters and vampires. "I will deal with them. Deal with the rest of their forces in the room."

Harry and Lucy drew their wands and swords at the Dark Lord in front of them. Su Li drew her wand and drifted behind the Dark Lord and to the left, while Bella moved behind and to the right. Ginny and Alicia moved behind the dark lord.

When Voldemort was surrounded by his six opponents, he nodded approvingly. "Very good," he said. With the speed of a serpent, he slashed his hand at Su Li, silently casting a sickly-yellow spell.

A fraction of a second later, Harry, Lucy and Bella and Ginny cast their own spells.

Su Li launched a hail of arrows, twirled away from Voldemort's spell and as she came away from her rotation, a lightning flashed from her wand at the Dark Lord.

Voldemort first slid sideways, avoiding the large spikes Ginny transfigured from the floor below him. Next, he slashed his wand at one of the spikes and banished it at the twins' overpowered piercing spells. Finally, he cast a shield to protect him from Bella's fireball and Su Li's arrows. The hail of arrows and the fireball splashed against his powerful shield and were easily stopped.

Voldemort hissed in displeasure as Su Li's lightning slammed into his shield, slightly straining it. To make matters worse for him, the Potter continued to fire high powered shield breakers. The snake-like man used the remains of Ginny's transfiguration, banishing them at the twins' spells, leaving his shield to protect him from Bella, Ginny and Su's spells.

Realizing that his enemies put him on the defensive, Voldemort twirled his wand in a circle and a thin ring appeared and expanded outward. While his enemies were busy shielding themselves, Voldemort conjured two dozen three meter long snakes. "Attack," Voldemort hissed in parseltongue and the snakes darted toward the twins. He then pointed his wand at Lucy Potter. "Avada Kadavra." Moving his wand toward her twin, he cast the Killing Curse again. Thinking that the Potter twins were suitably distracted, Voldemort concentrated his attention at the distractions. The Chinese girl was too fast to surprise, and Bella was too experienced. That only left the youngest (and probably, the weakest) - Ginny. To compensate for that, she was partnered with Alicia who could protect her.

Voldemort already knew how to deal with the pesky vampire problem. Apparently, the Potter brats made sure to protect their vampires from their race's weaknesses. Even without the twins' help, the stronger ones were already highly resistant, but in the end, a vampire was a vampire. They may be able to stand against an average wizard, he thought, but against someone truly powerful, they are nothing. Voldemort cast a giant fireball at Ginny, followed by a killing curse.

The girls was able to cast a shield in front of her and Alicia, who slashed her sword at the Killing Curse, dispelling it.

Voldemort was about to continue his attack, when he heard Harry Potter hiss at his snakes. "Stop. Turn back. Attack the snake-man."

Voldemort snarled in rage as the snakes obeyed the words of a parseltongue. From his wand a wall of fire expanded all the way to the Potter twins who shielded against it.

Voldemort now realized that while he was stronger than Harry, or Lucy, or even both of them, the twins and their four companions together were matching him in battle.

Voldemort stopped his casting, lowered his wand and stared calculatingly at the Potter twins.

When his six opponents stopped, Voldemort nodded grudgingly at them. "You make a skilled team," he hissed in parseltongue. "However, I am far more experienced than you. In the end, one of you will falter. One of you will make a mistake. When that happens, will the remaining ones be able to keep up? I ask you again, join me and rule by my side, or die. Even as we speak, Dumbledore is watching us. The old man is letting you exhaust yourselves in battle against me even if he knows that by joining you, I will not be able to win this fight. The old man is as much your enemy as I am. Join me... or die."

"You already know our answer," Harry hissed in parseltongue. "Even if Dumbledore is as much an enemy as you are, we will not bow before you. We are not slaves."

"We are Masters," Lucy hissed.

"I would not require you to take the Dark Mark."

"Even as allies, we could never trust you," Harry hissed.

"Yes," Lucy nodded. "After all, you are insane."

"I am not insane!"

"Yes, you are. Dumbledore made sure of it. Your madness is too great, Voldemort."

"I have seen into your mind, Tom Marvolo Riddle," Lucy added. "You are ... bat-shit crazy. You are a mad dog that needs to be put down."

"Rest assured that as soon as you depart into your next great adventure, we'll send Dumbledore to keep you company," Harry added.

"Very well," Voldemort said, realizing that the Potters would not give in. "Know that after I deal with you, I too shall return the favor," the Dark Lord said calmly. Voldemort actually tried to smile kindly at them before adding, "And I'll make sure to send your little harem as well. I'm afraid that they won't be in the best condition. After all, they will have entertained my Death Eaters for a long time by the time they expire. By that time, they'll be nothing more than mindless husks. I believe I will attend to some of them personally. After all," Voldemort glanced at Bellatrix, "my former best torturer now serves you."

With that, the fight started again, this time, at a far more ferocious pace.

**-x-x-x-**

As soon as Amelia Bones was warned of Voldemort's infiltration, she mobilized her loyal aurors and prepared to go support the Potter's fight. She'd taken two dozen of her best aurors and two vampire squads and was about to enter the Department of Mysteries when she came face to face with Dumbledore and his Order, Fudge and a few of his auror stooges and even some reporters and ministry heads.

"Dumbledore, Minister," Amelia nodded at the newcomers and wondered what the reporters and the ministry heads were doing there.

"Amelia," Dumbledore nodded grandfatherly at her, while the Minister just glared at her. Since he found out of the Gray Faction's intention to put Narcissa as the Minister of Magic, Fudge had become more and more inconvenient.

"Let's move," she said. "We have Death Eaters and Riddle inside."

"Now see here," Fudge snarled. "There's no you-know-who in there. And there are no Death Eaters as well."

"What about those who escaped from Azkaban?" Amelia asked.

"Well..."

"It doesn't matter," Amelia Bones said. "If there are Death Eaters in there, we'll capture them. If not, we have nothing to lose."

"Quite right," Dumbledore said before Fudge could say anything.

As the party advanced in the Department of Mysteries, aurors, Order members and vampires split to pursue enemy Death Eaters and vampires and aid the Gray Faction forces.

By the time they arrived at one of the entrances to the Hall of Prophecies, only Amelia Bones, six of her aurors and a vampire squad, Dumbledore and four Order members, Fudge, the reporters and the ministry heads remained.

They got right in time to see Voldemort and the Potter twins hissing at each other.

There was shocked silence in the group.

"That is you-know-who," Fudge said paling. "And he is talking with the Potter twins in parseltongue."

Dumbledore nodded gravely. "Yes, minister. The Potter twins were right about this matter."

When the hissing stopped, the twins-who-lived and their three companions began to furiously attack Voldemort.

Amelia prepared to move forward. "All right, we're going to..." The witch frowned when she found that she could not move forward. Realizing what happened, she glared at Dumbledore. "What in Merlin's name are you doing, Dumbledore?"

"Now, now, Amelia," Dumbledore said putting his wand into his robes. "None of us can move. If Voldemort realizes that I am here, he will surely fight at his full power or flee."

Amelia glanced at the rapid spell-fire between Riddle and the Potter twins. "I highly doubt he isn't truly doing his best to murder those children while we stay here, in open view like spectators to a play."

"I assure you Amelia, that we are well hidden from his eyes. It would be best to wait for a moment longer," Dumbledore said. "After all, the Potter twins appear to do quite well. I assure you that if they are in any danger, I will intervene. It would be better to wait until Voldemort is distracted and surprise him."

Amelia smothered the desire to cast the Killing Curse at the Headmaster. If she gave the word, the vampires would attack Dumbledore without any regard to their life. They practically worshipped the twins. Her aurors would obey as well. Unfortunately, she highly doubted it would be enough. It might even alert the twins and Voldemort of their fight with Dumbledore. That distraction wouldn't serve the twins when they were in such a fierce duel. "If any harm comes to them, I will kill you, Dumbledore," Amelia promised.

"Do not worry, Amelia."

Amelia nodded and returned her attention to the twins, who, along with Bellatrix Black, Su Li, Ginny and Alicia, had Voldemort surrounded.

They all moved with such speed and grace, especially the twins. Everything the Dark Lord threw at them was blocked by a piece of rubble, parried by a sword, avoided or shielded.

The fight took an almost hypnotic rhythm. The Twins avoided or parried dangerous spells like the Killing Curse, and occasionally threw a curse at Voldemort. Bellatrix, Su Li and Ginny were almost completely on the offensive, being mostly ignored by the Dark Lord's attacks, which were mostly concentrated on the twins.

**-x-x-x-**

Harry and Lucy had fell in a deadly dance with Voldemort.

Parry, attack, shield, attack, dodge.

Parry, attack, shield, attack, dodge.

Parry, attack, shield, attack, dodge.

On and on it went for almost a minute. It felt longer to the twins, but in the middle of battle, at the speeds they were fighting, it felt like hours.

'We need to break out of this deadlock,' Harry thought to his twin.

'We need Dumbledore. Even outnumbered, Riddle can still hold us with ease.'

'Yes,' Harry agreed as he saw Voldemort's next attack approach. The light-blue spell felt something like a slashing or piercing spell and Harry brought his sword to meet it. Just as the faithful sword blocked the spell, Harry saw Voldemort smirk.

For a fraction of a second, the sword felt ten times heavier. Then, a light-blue sphere of light formed at the point of impact. Harry felt a huge quantity of power from the sphere and tried to throw the sword away. His twin was two meters from him and Harry had to make a choice. He didn't have the time to erect a heavy enough shield. He blasted at his sister with all the power he had.

The ball of light started to get thinner and bulged outwards. Harry hoped that Lucy would be far enough from the blast radius. He tried to use the vampire ability and Blink away to safety, but was unable to. The ball exploded, and Harry tried one last time to save himself by erecting a quick shield.

A second after the spell impacted Harry's sword, the ball exploded into a disk of light.

Harry's shield was slashed apart as if it wasn't there.

And so was Harry's body.

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy Potter landed on her feet and hands to see the disk that cut her other half, disappear. Behind Harry, there was a large gouge in the floor. And Harry...

Lucy met his eyes and saw the light in his eyes start to fade. "Harry!" She screamed. She ran at him and thought of a way to save him.

Unfortunately, the rational part of her mind told her that even Harry would be unable to heal such damage.

Harry Potter had been cut cleanly in two - from the left shoulder to his right hip. She could see what had remained of the heart - burned by the attack like most of his internal organs.

'Lucy,' Harry's voice came into her mind.

The girl touched Harry's head gently. 'Don't die.'

With his last strength, Harry brushed a tear from the face of his twin. 'Remember. As long as you are alive, you can save me.' "Live!" he whispered.

And then, Harry Potter closed his eyes and was no more.

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy heard a chuckle from behind her and rose to her feat.

"Foolish children," Voldemort chuckled. "You were so confident and proud in your powers, that you forgot that I, Lord Voldemort, am the strongest Dark Lord in centuries. You trusted too much in those toy swords, foolish children. Did you think I would not find a way to use it in my favor? Your foolish brother tried to Blink, you know? However, I am Lord Voldemort. Did you think that I would not realize what you are? That you had the powers of a master vampire? That you could use their abilities? Did you think I would not find a way to neutralize your powers? Did you think you could defeat me!?"

Lucy rose to her feat and pointed her wand at the corpse of her brother, casting preservation spells. She shrunk it, conjured a box and put the remains inside. After she pocketed the box inside her cloak, she sent a message through her necklace. "Break the wards."

"You will pay for this," Lucy said. Her face was calm, not showing the grief and rage she felt inside. "But not today," she added.

"Not so quick, Lucy Potter," Voldemort smiled.

Lucy pointed her wand at Voldemort.

"Now that your brother is dead, you stand no chance against me. If only the old man had given you his help, Harry would be alive." Voldemort stared at Dumbledore through his shield and illusion. "There he stands, keeping your allies from helping you. It is not because of me that your brother died. It is Dumbledore's fault. Join me, Lucy Potter. You shall be my consort and rule beside me."

"Join you?" Lucy's hands shook and she bowed her head. "You will regret this day, Tom Marvolo Riddle. I will hunt down your Death Eaters. I will slaughter all those who serve you. I will find you and I will have you helpless at my feet. I will rip out your mind and body. When I am done with you, you'll beg for death, Voldemort."

Voldemort shook his head in disappointment. "Such a nasty mind you have, Lucy Potter." The Dark Lord paused. "Come to think of it, I shall call you Potter from now on. Since your brother is dead, I don't have to say Harry or Lucy to show who I am referring to."

Lucy's head straightened and stared at Voldemort. Her eyes were now red.

"Ah, such pretty eyes," Voldemort said.

"Avada Kadavra!" Lucy snarled. From behind Voldemort, there were three more shouts of, "Avada Kadavra!"

Voldemort slid away from Lucy's killing curse and banished a block of rubble at another. He felt something close and escaped decapitation at Alicia's sword by intercepting it with his free arm. Fortunately for the Dark Lord, his body was resistant enough that the sword cut only half way. Voldemort pointed his want at the vampire, who let go to the sword and retreated. He changed his mind about cursing her when he heard four more Killing Curses being cast. Voldemort escaped them again, but the next spell frightened even him.

"Fiendfyre!" Lucy snarled.

There were two more shouts of, "Fiendfyre" from Bellatrix and Ginny, and a word in Chinese from Su Li, who fired a huge black flame at Voldemort.

The Dark Lord struggled to keep the creatures at bay while, at the same time, he tried to defend himself from Su Li and Lucy's attacks, who had enough mental power to both control the cursed fire and cast additional spells.

When she felt Dumbledore's ward fall, she sent a message to her forces. "All forces. Retreat."

**-x-x-x-**

Amelia Bones gasped in horror as Harry Potter fell down, dead. "Dumbledore, let go," she snarled when she saw Lucy in front of the Dark Lord.

Dumbledore did nothing but stare at Lucy Potter.

"Dumbledore! You are going to drop the ward, and then you will go down there to help Lucy Potter as you were supposed to."

"I believe it would be inadvisable to do that," Dumbledore said.

"Then let go and I will do it. Drop the ward!" Amelia drew her wand. "I'm warning you, Dumbledore."

Her aurors and vampires prepared themselves for a fight.

Amelia was about to curse the old man when she heard Lucy Potter cast the Killing Curse. This is bad, Amelia thought.

"As I thought," Dumbledore said. "They are using the Darkest of magic."

Fudge smirked at this new turn of events. "Using the Killing Curse is an automatic sentence to the Dementor Kiss."

"Unfortunately, the dementors have now joined Voldemort," Amelia sneered. Turning her attention back to Dumbledore, she pointed her wand at Dumbledore. "Drop the ward, or the most skilled wizard or not, I'll kill you."

Dumbledore nodded releasing the ward and Amelia, her aurors and her vampires headed towards Lucy.

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy saw Amelia head towards her. "We'll finish this later," she told Voldemort. Then she disapparated. Voldemort's other opponents retreated. Amelia Bones gave Voldemort a glare. "We are leaving," she told her aurors, and then she and her party were away.

Voldemort was now able to subdue and dispel the cursed fire.

The Dark Lord smirked at Dumbledore. He understood what the old man had done. He just didn't think the old man had it in him. But then again, Dumbledore always thought that Dumbledore knew best.

Voldemort smirked at the Light Lord and decided to help the old man's plans. "I see that Potter left you to die just as you left her brother to die. You should thank me for dispelling the cursed fire. Foolish old man, now that girl hates you more than me. In time, she will get over her brother's death. In time, she may even rule by my side as my consort. She is as Dark as I am and twice more vicious. I shall enjoy her vengeance upon you, old man."

With that, Voldemort apparated back to his base.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's Notes**: Do you hate me for killing Harry?

Published: April 10, 2010.

-voider-

-x-x-x-


	20. Rebirth and Amputation

**Warning: **This chapter contains ritual killings.

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 20.**

**Fifth year.**

**Rebirth and Amputation.**

**-x-x-x-**

Amelia Bones strode inside the hushed library where Lucy

Potter - the surviving part of the twins-who-lived, was sitting on a couch in front of the fireplace. The rest of the inner circle were there, frightened and despondent at the loss of Harry Potter.

"Amelia," Lucy stated without looking away from the fire, "report."

"Fudge and Dumbledore are already starting to attack the Gray faction. Both of them are rallying their resources against us. They are using the fact that you used Dark Magic in your duel with Voldemort and that you are parseltongues. We're quickly losing our influence in the ministry. By tomorrow, I'll probably lose my position and so will most of our people. Fudge has already ordered a few of his people to seize control of the Daily Prophet. I'm afraid that tomorrow's paper will have something like ...Death of the Dark Lord Potter," Amelia sneered in disgust.

"Riddle's supporters will probably help them," Narcissa said. "And the Gray Faction Families will probably lose confidence in us."

"Dumbledore and Fudge see us as a higher danger than Riddle. Already, a few of the Death Eaters we captured were freed by Fudge."

"Tonight they all showed that they are our enemies," Lucy said coldly. "From now on," the girl-who-lived turned her head to stare with her still glowing red eyes in Amelia's eyes, "we are at war. We will show them no mercy. Amelia from now on Dumbledore and the ministry are our enemies. I will do terrible things, things that we avoided until now. Will you follow me, despite that?"

Amelia nodded soberly. "A few years ago, I would have said no. But now... I will do what needs to be done."

"Good. Amelia, Narcissa. Spread the word that my brother will rise again. Tomorrow we will perform the necessary ritual."

"Won't that support Fudge and Dumbledore's plans to declare us Dark?" Narcissa asked.

"I will not make the same mistake we did when we confronted Voldemort. Now that Dumbledore and Fudge showed their true faces, there's no more reason to play nice. It is time for us to do the same thing. Amelia, I want you to get all the remaining prisoners from tonight and bring them here. I'll need them for the ritual."

Amelia paled, but nodded reluctantly.

"Also," Lucy continued, "see how many aurors and ministry workers, you can convince to join us. Secure our assets and pull our people back. The lines have been drawn. Once by brother rises... there will be war." Lucy turned her attention to Narcissa. "Prepare a statement, my Chancellor. It's time to let the Wizarding world know that we will not let our enemies walk all over us."

Lucy rose to her feet. "Alicia, Bella, I will need your help to prepare the ritual room."

"Yes, mistress," the two women answered.

**-x-x-x-**

Lucy was standing in the middle of the large ritual chamber. There was a circular knee-height pool that was ten meters in diameter and was half filled with water. Lucy looked at her mates. "You understand what we are about to do?"

At their nod, Lucy drew the black box her brother's body was in, enlarged it and levitated the body. She put him in the middle of the basin and nodded at Alicia.

The vampire went outside the room and the Inner Circle females made a circle around Lucy and Harry.

Alicia returned with two dozen Death and enemy vampires, silenced and in unbreakable chains. On each enemy's side, there was one of Alicia's strongest vampires. The prisoners were led at the edge of the pool."

The twins' familiars flew on Lucy's shoulders, and the girl drew a ritual knife. "Blood of the Familiar, call to your master!" Lucy intoned. With two quick flicks, she made two cuts on the ravens' legs. A few drops of blood dripped into the water and the air cooled noticeably.

Lucy lifted her eyes towards the vampires at the edge of the pool. "Blood of the enemy, unwillingly taken, you will resurrect your foe." She heard three dozen knives being drawn. Each knife was stabbed in one of their enemies' heart.

The blood rushed out from the slain bodies into the pool. Once the last drop of blood fell, he vampires discarded the corpses outside the pool.

"Blood of our servants, willingly given, you will resurrect your master!" Each of the vampires slashed their wrists and allowed their blood to drop in the crimson water of the pool.

"Blood of the mates, lovingly shed, you will resurrect your Lord!" The girls around Lucy slashed their own hands.

Lucy kneeled next to her twin, put one hand over his heart and slashed her wrist.

"Blood of the twin, you will resurrect my Other!"

All the blood began to swirl towards Harry. Lucy could feel the weakened soul of her twin as it grew in strength. The mortal wounds on her twin's body started to regenerate and suddenly, Harry's body was no longer vacant of a soul. The boy who died opened his eyes and drew a long breath.

Lucy planted her lips over her twin and his first breath turned into a desperate kiss.

'You are back,' Lucy thought. 'We are whole, once again.'

Harry broke the kiss and smiled at his other half. 'We will always be together.' Grasping Lucy's back tighter, the boy drew Lucy's form closer and trailed soft kisses down her neck.

There were happy cries of "Harry" and "Master" as the twins' mates threw themselves at the resurrected boy-who-lived.

**-x-x-x-**

"The wards are down," Bill Weasley groaned.

An Auror captain nodded at the ward breaker and shouted at his aurors. "Go!"

The Auror teams rushed inside the building and Bill drew a few deep breaths to recover himself from the exhausting magical effort that was necessary to collapse the wards to the Daily Prophet building. Glancing around him, he realized that he and his curse breaker teammates were left alone by the aurors. Bill shook his head in disgust. A few aurors should have stuck by his team and protect them while they recovered.

A few minutes later, after his team could stand up without fainting, the redhead moved inside the building to see Dawlish swear. "Captain, what is it?"

"Over half the reporters fled a few hours ago. The bastards took most of the equipment, the owls and trashed the rest!" the auror snarled. "The blasted Gray Faction evacuated just as we were planning this operation!"

Bill glanced at the remaining reporters. "What about them?"

"These are the remaining ones. Besides the ones that fled with the Gray faction, some of them decided to go into hiding until things get calmer."

"And these..."

"Are the ones who thought it would be more advantageous for them to work for the ministry."

Bill glanced at one of the reporters, who was being interrogated by an auror. "Like Skeeter," Bill muttered in displeasure. "I wonder why I'm not surprised she's still here."

"Of course she's here," Dawlish snorted in amusement. "Her former employers put a stop to her fantasy stories. I think it's actually painful for her to write something true."

"Well, she'll certainly won't have that trouble now, will she?" Bill said in disgruntlement.

"You got a problem with that? After all, Dumbledore is the one who came up with this scheme."

**-x-x-x-**

Neville Longbottom was eating his breakfast and looking curiously around the Great Hall.

"Neville, is something wrong?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. The Potters aren't here."

Ron stopped inhaling his food. "Huh. Professor Black is absent as well."

"Flitwick doesn't look too happy," Hermione noted.

"But Dumbledore does," Neville added.

Owls started to fly in the Great Hall. "Aren't there more owls than usual? Neville asked."

Hermione nodded. "Yes. I wonder why."

Two owls landed next do Neville and Hermione. They had three newspapers each instead of the usual one. Two more owls just dropped their cargo of one newspaper each and flew off. Hermione and Neville paid their owl and retrieved a newspaper each. The owls flew off and headed toward other students.

Neville and Hermione opened their Daily Prophet and begun to read. They gasped as they read the titles.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

Neville begun to read. "_The Potter twins caught using the Darkest of magics by Minister Fudge and Albus Dumbledore._" Skipping to the next article Neville continued reading the title. "_Dark Lord Harry Potter Killed by You-Know-Who..._" The Gryffindor boy flipped the page. "_Who is the Grater Danger? The Dark Lady or the Dark Lord?_ ... As if there's any question... _The Potter Twins - the Root of Evil... Time to Stand Together Against the Dark..._" Neville stopped flipping through the newspaper and grabbed the new paper. "Huh, the name of the paper is the Daily Truth," Neville observed. "And the titles here are a bit different. "_Dumbledore Stood Back and Allowed Riddle to Fight the Twins-Who-Lived..._ _Harry Potter Alive... Dumbledore, the Ministry and the Death Eaters Allied Against the Gray Faction... The Gray Faction's Declaration of War... Dumbledore - Fired..._" Neville stopped from his perusal. "Huh? Dumbledore fired?"

"How could Professor Dumbledore be fired?" Hermione sniffed. "That paper is probably worse than the Quibbler."

"I don't know..."

The door to the Great Hall opened with a bang.

**-x-x-x-**

Black cloaked figures with hoods over their heads stepped inside the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Half of them begun to spread around the hall, while the rest waited in front of the door.

Two of the figures stepped a few paces forward and one of the two dropped its hood.

Dumbledore rose to his feet. "Lucy Potter, you are no longer wanted here," Dumbledore said regretfully. "I am sorry, my girl, but due to your crimes, I will have to take you in."

"My crimes?" Lucy asked coldly.

"Yes, my dear. You have used the Darkest of magic. Such a severe crime can not be forgiven. The ministry has already scheduled a trial for your crimes. I am afraid I will have to ask you and your... companions to surrender."

"You didn't ask me why I am here, Dumbledore."

The old man sighed heavily. "I suspect that it is as Lord Voldemort said and you are here to murder me."

"Actually, that's not exactly why I am here. Though, if I can separate that treacherous head from your shoulders, I won't be too upset. However, I am here for another reason."

"Oh?"

"Yes, You haven't read the Daily Truth yet?"

"Alas, I am afraid that it just arrived."

"Well, that doesn't matter," Lucy said dismissively. "Albus Dumbledore. Three of the Founder Lines found you unworthy for the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts. Ever since your rise to the position of Headmaster, the standards continued to fall. Thanks to you, in the last half of a century, most of Hogwarts' graduates have been far more unprepared than the ones who graduated before you became Headmaster. Thanks to you, Wizarding Britain has too few aurors, healers, hit-wizards, potion masters, spell-researchers... and so on. I could spent days counting your shortcomings, but I won't. Albus Dumbledore, you are fired."

"I am afraid, Miss Potter, that you have no right to do that."

"Of course I do, Dumbledore. Three of the four Founder Lines say that you're fired. Now, why don't you call your fried turkey and run along."

"Dumbledore drew his wand. Miss Potter, stop this foolishness and surrender or..."

"Or what?" the figure next to Lucy cut in. Dumbledore closely examined the figure and gasped. "Harry Potter!"

The-boy-who-lived dropped his hood. "Surprised to see me, Dumbledore? You're not getting rid of me that easy."

The former Headmaster shook his head sorrowfully. "Oh, Harry, how could it come to this? I would not have thought that you could fall to this point. You have perverted magic in the worst way possible. You have stepped on the same road as Voldemort." A lone tear fell from the old man's eyes. "There is no salvation for you now."

"What the fuck are you talking about, Dumbledore?"

"Do not try to play the fool with me, Harry. I know what you did. You have done the unthinkable. I do not know what foul magic you performed, but I can only surmise that is similar to the one Voldemort performed to survive the Killing Curse."

"Of course I did," Harry said mockingly. "And it took only one day to resurrect myself, while Riddle had to spend thirteen years to do it. You're not just insane, Dumbledore, you're stupid."

"I suspect you made a deal with him for his abominable ritual of resurrection."

"After that spell, I wasn't killed, you senile old man," Harry lied. "I was gravely injured, but I was still alive, though barely. Did you not see Lucy cast preservation and stasis charms over me? The Lord of Shadows was able to heal me. Now, leave this school."

"I will not do that, my boy."

"Then we will fight you, Dumbledore."

Dumbledore shook his head mournfully. "Oh Harry, how did it come to this?"

"How?" Lucy sneered? "How dare you, you two-faced, treacherous, manipulative shit?"

"Do you really think we were unaware of your crimes?" Harry growled.

"You do not know how long I've waited for this, Dumbledore. Until now, we were willing to ignore your crimes. But now that you showed your true face, there's no more reason to hold back. You and Fudge showed your true colors to everyone."

"But still, we are curious, Dumbledore. We understand Fudge. He is a small, corrupt man, that will do everything for power. We understand Voldemort. He is an abomination born from your sins that cares only of himself... "

"But you... At first we thought that your actions had a reason behind them. That by torturing us in our childhood, you tried to produce a weapon against Voldemort. But there are too many things that make no sense."

"Never until now, have you been so brazen in your actions," Lucy continued. "But now, you allied yourself with Fudge against us. You pushed him to actually have ministry forces attack the Gray Faction. To actually be aggressive against us and our allies. This is something you always opposed in the past, when it came to the Death Eaters. Even when Voldemort was torturing and murdering left and right, you opposed doing anything even marginally effective against him and his Death Eaters."

"And now, what do you do? You broke our deal, watching us fight against Voldemort without lifting a finger. Even more, stopping our allies from providing us assistance. Waiting for us to have no other choice than resort to magic that the ministry declared Dark, and then started to attack us."

"You have never been this aggressive against Voldemort."

"This means that you wanted Riddle to terrorize the Wizarding World."

"As long as your only opponent was a complete nutter, you'd appear as the only choice. But since Our Lord's rise to power, people have a third choice. And you don't like that, do you?"

"Harry, Lucy, you can not blame your crimes on me," Dumbledore said in disapproval.

"Sod off, Dumbledore," Lucy sneered. "I must thank you, old man. Now that you and Fudge showed your true colors, we no longer have to play nice."

"With you, Fudge and Riddle allied against us, at least politically, we no longer have to play by your rules."

"What do you mean, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

"You pushed us into a corner. Through your actions, you and Fudge declared war against us. The Gray Faction no longer considers itself under the rule of the ministry."

Dumbledore looked blank.

"We declared independence from your venal, corrupt ministry. We will no longer pay taxes to the ministry. We are no longer subject to your laws."

"You can not do that!" Dumbledore gasped.

"Oh, I think we can," Harry grinned maliciously. "If you didn't know, we already own more than half the economy."

"It will be in tomorrow's paper, but Narcissa has already been designated as our new Chancellor. We're already starting to build a new government. A third of Amelia's aurors decided to jump the boat. Over fifteen percent of the ministry workers did the same. Forty percent of St. Mungo's healers also joined us. Same thing with most of the vampires and werewolves in Britain."

Dumbledore paled. "Harry if the ministry loses so many people and resources, they won't be able to fight Lord Voldemort.

"Yes, because they were so effective until now," Harry mocked. "Your precious ministry lost the first war with Voldemort. It's not like they could have done anything even with our support."

"Harry, if we split our forces..."

"Then you won't be able to use our resources against us," Harry said smugly.

"You should have thought about that, before you let Riddle almost kill my brother!" Lucy snarled.

Harry glared coldly at the former Headmaster. "We're not going to play games any longer, Dumbledore. You and the ministry proved that you are our enemies as much as the Death Eaters. We have more than half the economy. Our military forces - aurors, vampires, mercenaries and werewolves have a clear numerical superiority in Britain. Not only that, but they're better trained as well. Our civilians and businesses are all protected under heavy wards."

"And now, we also have Hogwarts," Lucy added.

"I will not allow this, children," Dumbledore said softly. "Please surrender and I will make sure you are shown mercy..."

"All students and professors," Harry said over Dumbledore's platitudes, "please leave the Great Hall and head to your dorm room. After the change of leadership is complete, we will have a few announcements to make."

"Until then, rest assured that the school will stay open and all of you will be allowed to remain. Behaviors encouraged by certain greasy haired gits, however," Lucy glanced at Snape, "will not be allowed."

The potion master threw Lucy a poisonous look and clenched his hand around his wand.

The students begun to hurry out of the Great hall shepherded by most of the professors. However, the Slytherin and Gryffindor heads' of house remained.

"Are you planning to leave with Dumbledore?" Lucy asked McGonagall.

Before the professor could respond, Dumbledore answered for her. "No."

The Gryffindor head of house opened her mouth to protest, but the stern look on her headmaster's faced convinced her otherwise.

After the hall was empty of students and professors, both sides tensed for a fight.

The twins' side started with a flurry of dark curses. The wizards and witches of the group launched their spells at Dumbledore and Snape, while the vampires stood back, in defensive positions.

Dumbledore waved his wand, and the plates on the professors table changed into birds that flew into the Great Hall. With another wave, the table flipped over and changed into stone, blocking the spells flying towards him and Snape.

The potion master sent a cutting curse at Harry, before ducking behind Dumbledore's defenses. The boy-who-lived dodged it with ease. Together with his twin, they fired two powerful spells that broke Dumbledore's wall, followed by killing curses. Other unforgivables came from the other forces as well as a few wide area spells. Dumbledore's birds intercepted the forbidden spells and a shield blocked the rest.

The Gray Faction launched another volley of spells and Harry hissed in parseltongue, "Attack."

Suddenly, something huge burst from the wall behind Dumbledore and Snape. Both the potion master and the Headmaster turned their attention toward the new threat. They caught the eyes of a giant basilisk and froze. Snape turned to stone, but Dumbledore recovered from the shock of seeing Slytherin's monster and a few flicks of his wand dealt with the incoming curses.

Both sides lowered their wands. "Snape should be dead," Harry said. "And so should you."

"Harry, my boy," Dumbledore chuckled. "Your age reveals your foolishness. Do you really think that someone of Severus' skills would not have sought protection against such magic? And I... well there is a reason for my renown." Fakes appeared in a flash of fire above Snape, put a claw over the man, and with another flash of fire, flamed the potion master away.

"I admit that against someone else, this would have been a perfect plan. Unfortunately for you, a basilisk..." Dumbledore flicked his wand and conjured a rooster, "is easy do destroy." Spells and curses were flung again at Dumbledore and the giant Snake rushed the headmaster. The ancient man dodged both giant snake and spells like someone 130 years his junior. The Snake managed to kill the conjured rooster, but Dumbledore conjured another.

The basilisk turned sharply and launched itself at the old wizard.

The rooster started to crow and the snake froze and collapsed in front of Dumbledore.

The twins and their allies continued to throw spells at Dumbledore, who, after defending himself, flicked his wand at the suits of armor around the Great Hall.

They twitched and started to move toward the twins. Lucy waved her wand at the animated suits and they stopped. With another flick, they started to move towards Dumbledore. "Foolish old man," Lucy sneered. "We control the wards. We have the advantage, not you. Hogwarts' defenses are ours to control, not yours." Meanwhile, Harry started to transfigure snakes and send them to attack along with the suits.

The endless, continuous attacks started to take a toll on the old man, and he started to move behind the basilisk.

"He's going to use the basilisk to shield himself," Harry said to his people. "Direct spells will be useless against a basilisk skin. Use transfiguration."

Immediately, the Gray Faction started to transfigure animals and send them at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore sighed in relief from behind the body of the basilisk and launched a wave of flames at the animals that were charging him. Two vampires rushed through the flames, swords in their hands and ready to cut him in half. Closely behind the two vampires, were Harry and Lucy, ready to attack as soon as the two vampires launched their own attack.

Dumbledore was forced to quickly jump back to avoid the vampires' swords.

The basilisk suddenly opened its jaws and tried to bite Dumbledore. This time, the old man was unable to escape completely. His quick dodge saved him from evisceration, but the giant snake still managed to bite with a fang on the man's elbow. The two vampires came back and tried to end the immobilized wizard.

Dumbledore pointed his wand at his left arm, above the point where it was pierced by the basilisk and cast a quick severing charm. He ducked down, barely avoiding the vampires rush and two Pain curses from Harry and Lucy. The two vampires passed him and ducked as two wide slicing curses, followed by two more Pain curses from their masters flew towards them and Dumbledore.

Dumbledore cast a heavy shield and the two slicing curses splashed on it. Two pieces of rubble stopped the two unforgivables and Fawkes - Dumbledore's phoenix familiar, burst into flames above the injured headmaster.

"Avada Kadavra," the twins shouted desperately, trying to finish the old man before he could escape.

The spells passed through the shield, but before they could even close to their target, the old man was gone in a flash of phoenix flames.

"Damn," Lucy snarled.

The two vampires rose to their feet, disappointed that they couldn't kill their masters' enemy.

"But still," Harry grabbed Dumbledore's severed arm and pulled it free of the basilisk fang, "we got his hand. It's better than nothing."

"True," Lucy sighed. She patted the basilisk head. "Good girl. You tricked the old man."

"Foolish human," the snake hissed. "As if Slytherin wouldn't have taken in consideration and dealt with my kind's weakness against roosters when he chose me as his chamber's guardian."

**-x-x-x-**

The next morning, when the students entered the Great Hall, they saw no sign of Dumbledore or Snape. Instead, Harry and Lucy Potter were sitting at the professor's table. There was also another face between Harry and Bellatrix who was smiling. She looked similar to the DADA teacher, though her smile was not Bella's creepy "I'm probably thinking about eviscerating you," smile.

Once all the students were at their table, Harry stood up. "Good morning, students. I have a few announcements to give. But first, I want to assure you that you are all safe here. Once you know a little more about what happened in the last two days, some of you will decide to leave Hogwarts. I assure you that we will not try to keep you here against your will."

"No doubt you have realized that Dumbledore and Snape are not here. They have both been fired. Andromeda Tonks will be your new Headmistress."

"You can't just decide that on your own," a voice from the Gryffindor table shouted.

"Aah, miss Granger," Harry said pleasantly. "I'm actually well within my rights to do anything here."

"But..."

"If you disagree... well there is nothing you can do. If you feel that strongly against this situation, you are free to leave." Harry's eyes passed over the Gryffindor table. "No doubt, many of you will. Some of your families will also want you to leave. If you choose to, you may leave. If however, you decide not to, Hogwarts will shelter and protect you. Given the danger of the approaching war, we have decided to allow all students to stay over the summer at Hogwarts. Those of you who might have... financial problems, may arrange for a very reasonable, long-term, low-interest loan from the school."

"Before deciding, I must also inform you that we, the Gray Faction, seceded from Wizarding Britain. Given the alliance between Dumbledore, Fudge and Voldemort against us, we had no other choice. We have our own government, led by Chancellor Narcissa Black. We have our own Auror and military forces, hospitals..." Harry smiled, "and a well protected school. Before deciding to remain here, you must understand that it is possible that they might consider it treasonous if you stay here. Please think carefully for a few days before deciding. And now, the new Headmistress has a few words of her own."

Harry sat down and Andromeda stood up and gave her students a small smile. "In the last few decades, Hogwart's standards have fallen. I will do my best to remedy that. I am pleased to announce that Horace Slughorn will be replacing Severus Snape as Potion Master and Head of House Slytherin. We will also have a new history teacher within two weeks. Professor Black will unfortunately leave us next week. Your next DADA teacher will be..."

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's notes:** It's been quite a while since I last updated. I'll try to do better.

As you may have realized, this is closing to the end.

Published: 26 October 2010.

-voider-


	21. War and Pillage

**-x-x-x-**

**Chapter 21.**

**Fifth year.**

**War and Pillage**.

**-x-x-x-**

Minister Cornelius Fudge had been staring at the piece of paper in front of him for the past hour. "This can't be happening," he muttered for the hundredth time. He awakened from his reverie when he heard a knock at his office door. "What?" he snarled.

"Lord Malfoy is here," his secretary said.

"It's about time," the minister grumbled. "Send him in."

Lucius Malfoy strode in. "Ah, Cornelius," Lucius said affably. "What can I do for you today?"

"It's a disaster," Fudge whined.

"What disaster?"

Fudge handed a document to Malfoy. "This!"

Malfoy quickly read it. "I see. When I heard that... proclamation from the Gray faction, I was skeptic."

"I thought it was a joke," Fudge laughed bitterly. "But this makes it official. All of the Gray Faction's businesses have officially stopped paying their taxes. The goblins said that the Gray faction businesses already transferred the current trimester payments to their new government. Do you know how much money we're losing?"

"That is... unfortunate," Malfoy nodded.

"Unfortunate?" Fudge snarled. "This isn't just unfortunate. A third of my aurors are gone! Bones - that bitch - took them with her. Some Ministry workers stopped coming to work. They're now working for, Chancellor Narcissa," Fudge made a sour face as if he took a bite into a lemon. "Over half the healers are also gone. And the worst of it is that half the taxes that keep the Ministry working, are gone. And if that new newspaper is to be believed, Dumbledore was thrown out from Hogwarts by the Potter twins, though not before cutting off one of his arms. So that means that we also lost Hogwarts - Magical Britain's most prestigious school. When Dumbledore came up with that little scheme to declare them Dark, I thought it was such a brilliant idea. Oh Merlin, what was I thinking? And what was Dumbledore thinking?"

"Yes, Dumbledore hasn't been making the best choices lately," Lucius smiled.

"You're in no position to talk, Lucius," Fudge snarled. "What in Merlin's name were you doing at the ministry that night?"

"You know that it wasn't my choice," Malfoy said calmly. "No one can resist the Dark Lord's Imperius."

"It better not happen again, Lucius." Do you know how hard it was to get you released? If not for Dumbledore, with his plan against the Gray faction, I might not have been able to secure your release."

"And you were amply compensated for that little favor," Malfoy replied.

Fudge nodded and sighed. "You're right. Now the question is what are we going to do? If we don't get those taxes, the ministry will be in trouble."

"Well, we obviously can't demand those galleons from the goblins. Given the current situation, insisting on it won't just start a Goblin Rebellion. Those little beasts would just join the Gray Faction."

Fudge nodded grumpily. "I know."

"You said that they only took a third of the aurors."

Fudge nodded.

"Well then, that means you still have two thirds. We'll just have to send them to convince the Gray faction to reconsider their little rebellion. It's what you did with the Daily Prophet."

"True," Fudge nodded. "But the Daily Prophet was defended by heavy wards. From what I hear, the Gray faction has heavy wards over all of their businesses and homes. Dumbledore sent a few of his people to help with the wards over the Daily Prophet. My remaining auror forces unfortunately, aren't that skilled at ward breaking. And given our money problem, we can't afford to hire some."

Malfoy smiled. "Well, perhaps you can convince Dumbledore to send his people to assist."

"Good idea," Fudge nodded. "I'll send him an owl."

**-x-x-x-**

Antonio Zabini nodded at the pair of aurors that strode into his store. "Gentlemen, what can I do for you?"

"Antonio Zabini?" one of the aurors asked.

"Yes?"

"By order of the ministry, you are accused of treason against Magical Britain. Surrender your wand and..."

"No."

"What?"

"I said no," Zabini said. "I do not recognize the Ministry as my government. You have no right to arrest me."

The aurors drew their wands. "I don't think you understand what you're saying."

"I think I am," Zabini said. "Activate wards."

The aurors quickly cast shield spells just as a wave of force slammed into them. The shields held, but the two aurors were blasted out of the store through the closed door.

The aurors cast cushioning spells and landed easily.

One of the aurors rose to his feet and waved his wand at the store. "The wards are up. We'll need a few curse breakers."

"Fortunately, we have a few ready," the other auror said.

**-x-x-x-**

Bill Weasley and his curse-breaker team port-keyed in the middle of Diagon Alley. "Moody, Shacklebolt," Bill nodded at the former auror and auror. He glanced around, surprised at how empty the street was.

"The aurors cleared the street," Moody said, catching Bill's curiosity.

"I see. So, what do we have?"

"Store owned by the Zabini," Moody grunted.

"I see. You know, there are a lot of stores that belong to the Gray Faction. Is Dumbledore expecting us to break all of those wards? Because if he does, he'll be disappointed. We can't do more than one per day. Even that is too much."

"It doesn't matter," Shacklebolt said. "If we have to, we'll break them one at a time. I don't think that we'll have to, though. Once the Gray Faction realizes that we're serious, they'll give up."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Moody chuckled. "The leaders of these people, besides the Potters of course, are cautious, self-serving, profit seeking purebloods that dislike the Light, but can't really stomach You-Know-Who. If they did something as dangerous as ... betraying Wizarding Britain, then they thought they have a good chance of success and, they saw profit in this. Some of the rest of the Gray faction are the non-human groups like the werewolves and vampires who see in the Potters the best chance there is to a better future. Others are muggleborns who don't have any particular loyalty towards the Wizarding World. Others are half-bloods that are seen as second class citizens."

"You're right," Bill said thoughtfully.

"They have all sorts of reasons for what they do, and little reason to give up," Moody continued.

"We'll give them a reason today," Shacklebolt said.

**-x-x-x-**

Once the curse breakers arrived in front of the Gray Faction shop, they spread around the warded building and started casting diagnostic spells.

Bill Weasley was about to give the command to begin to his fellow curse breakers, when out of nowhere, three of the aurors that were milling around, drew their wands and fired at Moody. The retired auror was already ducking and casting a shield spell by the time the first curse - a bone breaker, was cast. Unfortunately for the paranoid man, the second auror cast a Crucio. The first spell missed, but the unforgivable tore through the shield and hit Moody. The third spell - a stunner came a fraction of a second after the torture curse and sent Moody into unconsciousness. The three aurors fired again and one more stunner, a bone-breaker and a cutting curse slammed in the unconscious former auror. The attackers then pointed their wands at the aurors and Bill's ward-breakers. They managed to fire two more times before they were cursed into unconsciousness.

Bill and a few aurors rushed towards Moody, while others went to check the other two aurors who received a few injuries from the surprise attack. Shacklebolt moved towards the attackers and other aurors carefully looked around.

Bill approached Shacklebolt. "Were they under the Imperius?" he asked.

"Probably," Shacklebolt nodded. "If the bastards who came up with this plan thought they could stop us with this, they will be sorely disappointed. I wonder though... why they targeted Moody first."

The answer to that question came only a few seconds later, when out of nowhere, a massive salvo of curses slammed into the ranks of curse-breakers and Ministry aurors.

"I'm feeling wards being cast," Bill said while ducking to avoid a curse.

"Bugger," Shacklebolt cursed as he shielded himself from a fireball. "Take your people and retreat before they are trapped here! Try to get us some help."

Bill Weasley nodded and ran to his team. "We're getting out of here now!"

The ward-breakers activated their port-keys and disappeared.

**-x-x-x-**

As soon as Bill left, Shacklebolt pointed his wand at Moody. "Accio port-key." Nothing happened. "Bugger," Shacklebolt cursed. Moody must have cast an anti-summoning charm on the portkey, the auror realized. He would have preferred to search Moody's pockets for his port-key, but he didn't have the time. Shacklebolt, along with most of the aurors cast a revealing spell and cursed for the third time at what he saw.

The auror forces took a severe hit with Moody's loss from their combat capable numbers. The man's artificial eye would have been able to see that they were under attack by disillusioned enemies. They'd also lost the three Imperiused aurors and the first surprise attacks also got six more aurors. That left fifteen combat capable aurors.

Surrounding his fellow aurors, there were revealed at least twice that number of witches and wizards. Interspaced through them, he could see the same number of vampires.

Shacklebolt decided that his own portkey would not be of any use once the Gray Faction's wards were up. Hoping that the wards hadn't activated yet, he took out his own port-key and dropped it on Moody. Just before it touched the former auror, the port-key zoomed off. Shacklebolt followed its path and saw a sword cleave it in half. The auror recognized the vampire. Luciella - the second strongest vampire in Britain, if you discounted the rumor that the Lord of Shadows was also a vampire. And besides her, there was someone even worse. Bellatrix Black was grinning at him.

"Crucio," the bloodthirsty witch snarled. Shacklebolt dodged the unforgivable and fired a cutting curse.

The vampire rushed forwards, casually parrying the curse and continued towards him.

The auror frantically waved his wand and the ground in front of him bubbled up, turning first into mud, and then into the forms of animals, who rushed forward and leaped at the vampire.

The vampire ducked into a roll as a wide cutting curse from Bellatrix destroyed half their numbers. Luciella gracefully stood up with a swirl of her sword that cut the rest of the transfigured animals, changing them back into earth. Another wave of the wand from the auror changed the remains of the transfigured animals into vines that started to wrap around the legs of the vampire.

Bellatrix first cast another pain curse at the auror before dispelling the vines with a wave of the wand. Luciella continued forward.

The auror ducked Bella's unforgivable and fired a spell that the vampire shouldn't be able to deflect: a dozen metal spikes flew toward the vampire.

Luciella brought her sword down, managing to hit three of the spikes. Shifting her form slightly, she left two spikes to graze her while her left arm, now armed with a dagger, bashed aside a spike that would have punched through her left lung. The rest of the spikes missed.

Realizing that the vampire would soon be into sword range, where he would be at a disadvantage, Shacklebolt conjured a metal shield for his non-wand arm.

As soon as Luciella was in sword range, she tried to cut at the auror's head. Shacklebolt protected his face with his conjured shield, while he cast a bone breaker at the chest of the vampire. Surprisingly, he actually managed to finally hit the vampire, which was spun back and around by the force of the spell hitting her chest.

Unfortunately for the auror, the vampire threw her dagger at his left arm. It hit and the auror dropped his conjured shield from the sudden pain.

Shacklebolt felt something from behind him and quickly cast a shield. A moment later a spell from Bellatrix slammed into his shield, shattered it and slammed into his chest. The auror was propelled forward, but his blood turned to ice as he heard Bellatrix's next spell.

"Avada Kadavra."

Shacklebolt would have thought that the Dark witch wouldn't have risked casting the killing curse due to the risk to her vampire ally in front of him. He looked back to see the curse and its path, but that meant that he took his eyes from his vampire opponent.

Once his eyes looked upon the killing curse, he realized something was wrong. Instead of flying straight towards him, the curse was aimed straight at his right foot.

The auror moved his foot from the path of the curse. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that somehow, the vampire's sword was about to hit him.

Shacklebolt swished his wand, and fired a cutting curse point blank into the vampire's chest. Hearing Bellatrix cast another unforgivable - this time, a pain curse, Shacklebolt prepared to dodge. Before he could do that the vampire, ignoring the last spell, dashed forward a step. Her sword bit deep into his shoulder.

The next thing he knew was pain. Not from the vampire's sword, but from Bella's Crucio. The pain stopped just as suddenly as it came. Shacklebolt felt his body petrify before chains were conjured all around him. The auror glanced at the vampire and realized why he lost. He could see the results of his last spell. His cutter drew blood, but only after cutting through what looked like a very good dragon hide armor.

Shacklebolt looked around, and was shocked to see that all of his fellow aurors were also down. The ambush had taken less than thirty seconds and they were all defeated.

**-x-x-x-**

"Sir," a junior auror burst into Scrimgeour's new office. After Amelia's defection ... or better said, treason, he managed to get appointed in her former position.

"What is it?" the new Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement asked

"Our auror teams in Diagon Alley are under attack."

"Death Eaters?"

"No sir," the young auror replied. "It was the Gray Faction."

"Damn. Tell Dawlish to prepare as many aurors as he can spare."

**-x-x-x-**

Scrimgeour nodded at Dawlish, the auror who took over his old job. He'd have liked someone else on the job. If Amelia and her Gray Faction hadn't committed treason and left, Dawlish wouldn't have become the Head of the Auror Office. But then again, if Bones hadn't left, he'd still have his previous job.

"Everybody ready?" Scrimgeour asked.

The eighteen aurors arrayed before him nodded in confirmation.

**-x-x-x-**

Bellatrix watched as the prisoners were carefully secured and port-keyed to their Faction's private prison. They'd never do the same mistake the Ministry did in the first war with Voldemort. Most of the Death Eaters captured then hadn't spend more than a few hours in any form of detention. Some of the Inner Circle, like Lucius Malfoy, didn't even step inside a prison cell, despite the fact that he was captured twice. A few bribes, obliviations and murders took care of that.

"We have company," Luciella said from besides her.

Bellatrix tensed. "Dumbledore?" she asked. If it was Dumbledore, Harry and Lucy would need to get involved. Only they had the raw power and skill to stand against someone like Dumbledore or Riddle.

"No. Ministry aurors."

"Oh," Bella sighed in relief. "How many?"

"Nineteen."

The witch waved dismissively. "We can take them easily."

"Perhaps," the vampire answered. "Remember our masters' words though. We can't weaken them too much."

"I know," Bella smirked. "Put them in their place, but leave enough to be able to blunt the Death Eater forces. I'm just afraid that those ministry bastards, Dumbledore and his insipid group of followers and Riddle and his Death Eaters will really put all of their differences aside and fight us as allies."

"And not as they are now - an unspoken alliance?" the vampire continued.

Bella nodded. "I'd feel better if we just put them all down before that happened."

"And that is precisely why we'll allow it, even encourage it."

"We are?"

"Indeed," the vampire smiled innocently. "We are going to cut off their legs and wand arm and allow them this alliance if they want it. We'll show the Wizarding World that they are the bad guys. And our masters will have the clear moral superiority. If we want to rule this country, we need the population as sympathetic to our cause as possible. Eventually, we'll stomp the Ministry, the Death Eaters and Dumbledore's supporters into the ground. We want to come out not just as the winners, but as the winners who had justice on their side."

Bellatrix smiled coldly. "As long as we are the victors, I don't care how we got there. I still think that a spot of torture and terror would serve just as well to educate one's citizens... but if our masters want them to love them, I'll do it. Even if it means I'll have to cast the Imperio on each one of the damned sheep."

Luciella laughed softly. "Ah, my dear Bella. You remind me so much of myself when I was as young as you. I am glad that I... that we once more have worthy masters."

Just then, the first auror reinforcements came into view.

"Now let us show our enemies who is the greater predator," the vampire said.

**-x-x-x-**

The Ministry aurors came face to face with the Gray Faction forces. Scrimgeour looked over them carefully and realized that they were in trouble. He had thought that when he and the reinforcements arrived, they'd be able to repel the enemies with the help of the aurors he'd come to help. Unfortunately he could see no sign of his own people. They were all captured, he realized.

From the enemy ranks, two figures stepped toward their group. One of the figures waved her wand, conjured a white flag and waved it mockingly at him. Scrimgeour's eyes narrowed in anger.

"That's Bellatrix Black," Dawlish said. "I don't recognize the other though."

"Luciella, master vampire and Alicia's Second." Scrimgeour stepped forward to meet the two. "Come on, Dawlish. Let us see what they want."

The Head of the Auror Office nodded and followed him. Once they were twenty paces from Bellatrix and her vampire companion, they stopped.

"Black," Scrimgeour nodded stiffly at Bellatrix.

"Scrimgeour," the witch nodded back politely. "What can we do for you fine gentlemen this fine day?"

"You can release my aurors and surrender."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I caught them fair and square. If you want them back, you'll have to make me." The witch grinned evilly. "But I think we all know you can't. After all we did take out two dozen of your aurors. It's unlikely that your reinforcements could do better than that."

Scrimgeour clenched his fists in fury and growled. "Damn you, Black. Do you think I'll allow this to pass?"

For the first time, the vampire talked. "Yes," Luciella said. "That is exactly what you are going to do. Your forces can't match us."

"The ministry has more aurors than you."

"True," Bellatrix smiled. "But we have plenty of mercenaries and an entire vampire coven. I think that we are more than a match for all your ministry aurors."

"Our masters would find it convenient if we didn't completely stomp your forces into the ground," Luciella added. "Our main enemies are still the Death Eaters and their master."

"Scrimgeour," Black added, "I suggest you tuck your tail between your legs and go tell that flunky of a minister and his Malfoy puppet-master not to mess with our people.

When the wizard said nothing, Bellatrix shifted her body into a more aggressive position.

Scrimgeour said nothing for a few seconds, and then he spun back and headed to his aurors, followed closely by his companion.

"Are we going to fight them?" Dawlish asked.

"We can't fight them with our current numbers," Scrimgeour grunted. "Even if we somehow could, if the Potters join the fight we wouldn't stand a chance. Rumor is that they managed to cut one of Dumbledore's arms. Until we know that Dumbledore recovered, we can't afford to get into a big fight. And then there's that Lord of Shadows of theirs. As much as I hate it, we can't ignore the fact that we're in a civil war not with two or three sides, but one with four sides. The Gray Faction have the Potters, the Death Eaters have Voldemort and the Light side has Dumbledore. We - the Ministry have nothing. We're dependent on Dumbledore and his people. And now we have to rely on an old man, probably senile, that lost his arm in a fight with the Potters. Even if Dumbledore is healed back into perfect shape, we can't really afford a fight between him and the Potters. If that happens, You-Know-Who might just decide to pop in at the end of such a fight and get rid of three birds with one shot."

**-x-x-x-**

Once Bellatrix and Luciella came back and gave her report, the twins nodded in satisfaction.

"Good job, Bella, Luciella," Harry said. "We have another job for you. I want you to attack Fudge's house. I want him to escape if he is there, but I want his home destroyed. If you can get your hands on anything of value, do so, though that is secondary."

"Yes, My Master," Luciella said.

Bella grinned. "Thank you, Master."

"This is only the beginning. We'll begin to attack the Death Eater's homes after this. The first target, after Fudge's home will be the Malfoy Manor."

"We'll stay here and serve as backup," Lucy said. "I will begin to interrogate our new prisoners, but if you meet with anything unplanned, we'll be ready to come help."

**-x-x-x-**

Later that night, Bella was in front of the Minister's home. The wards didn't appear to be that good, though as any other ward, it still took a significant amount of effort to break them.

"The wards are down," the senior ward-breaker informed her.

"Good," Bella signaled her forces to begin the operation. The ward-breakers and half her forces took defensive positions around the house, while the other half followed her and Luciella into the house.

The attackers spread through the house, but found no threat.

They did find however a large sum of galleons in a hidden safe in the main bedroom.

Bella smiled at what was probably the result of bribes given to Fudge. "We'll take them all," she said. Glancing around the room she grinned. "This place is pretty opulent. I think," Bellatrix pursed her lips, "that we'll be taking everything that isn't nailed to the wall."

**-x-x-x-**

The next night, the Potter twins decided to begin their offensive against the Death Eaters. To everyone's delight, and especially Narcissa's, Malfoy Manor would be the first target.

Harry and Lucy apparated high above the Malfoy Manor in their raven animagus forms and started to circle above.

Far below them, the Gray Faction's forces port-keyed in. There were two squads of aurors, two of mercenaries, four of vampires and almost all of their curse-breakers. The two squads of curse breakers started their work. Half of them begun to work on the Manor's wards while the others raised wards to prevent all forms of transport and communication between the Manor and the outside world.

The twins had chosen to attack when Lucius Malfoy was busy meeting with Fudge. Had he been at home, Lucius might have done something to make more difficult the Gray Faction's attack. Even worse, he might have been able to escape or call for help from Voldemort.

With Malfoy gone though, the attack would be easier. As long as Voldemort keeps away from their attack, the attack would succeed. If the Dark Lord came though, the twins would keep him busy until their forces retreated. The Potter twins wanted any possible advantage when fighting with Riddle and fighting him while their forces were already engaged in an attack was not very advantageous.

**-x-x-x-**

Lucius Malfoy moved through the somewhat crowded Ministry hallway, toward the public fireplaces. He'd just finished another meeting with Fudge. The foolish man was now complaining about the attack over his home. Apparently, the attackers plundered everything they could get their hands on before burning it down. The stupid man was now torn between being scared and being outraged. It would have been easy to manipulate the foolish man into wasting his aurors against the Gray Faction.

Unfortunately, given the huge defeat the Ministry aurors suffered in Diagon Alley at the hands of the Gray Faction, the Dark Lord realized that if Fudge lost too many aurors, it would be possible that the Potters would just swoop in and take control over the Ministry.

Malfoy had done his best to weaken the Ministry's fighting capabilities. And now, it was too weak. If Voldemort decided to attack it now, he'd certainly win. Unfortunately, the Potters would swoop in and attack the victors. And then, Dumbledore would swoop in and defeat the victors, Malfoy thought to himself. His lips twitched in amusement at the thought.

Lucius arrived at the fireplace, grabbed some floo powder and tossed into the fireplace. "Ma..."

A stunner hit the Death Eater in the back. Two figures from behind the man watched him fall and tossed a port-key on the now unconscious man. They were under a notice-me-not charm until they attracted attention with their attack.

"Activate," Bellatrix Black said.

Lucius Malfoy disappeared, and the witches and wizards around the two figures stopped to gape. It took them a few moments to realize the identity of the two attackers - Bellatrix Black and a vampire.

The witch smirked and gave a wave to the gaping crowd. "Let's go, Luciella," she said to her companion. Grabbing the hand of the vampire, she apparated them away.

**-x-x-x-**

**Author's Notes**: Not much on Harry and Lucy. That can't be helped. This is the result of having an army and an entire economical and political group.

Published: December 21, 2010.

-voider-


End file.
